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ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES 



UIITED STATES. 



REV. EDWARD WAYLEN, 

LATE RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND. 
ELEVEN YEARS RESIDENT IN AMERITA. 



"The surest pledge of perpetual peace between the two countries is to be found in 
their community of Faith, and in the closeness of their Ecclesiastical intercourse." — 
.Vrchbishoi' Howley. 



NEW YORK: 
WILEY AND PUTNAM, IGl BROADWAY. 

1846. 



/^ 



C. A. Alvord, Printer, 
Cor. Jolin ■ ii'J Dutch Sts. 






N(~l 



r B. Smith, Stkkkcjtvpkr. 
216 William Street. 



MOST REVEKEND WILLIAM HOWLEY, D.D. 

PRESIDENT ; 

THE REV. DR. RUSSELL, AND CHARLES J. MANNING, ESU. 

TREASURERS ; 

THE REV. A. M. CAMPBELL, 

SECRETARY ; 

AND THE COMMITTEE OF 

THE VENERABLE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL 

IN FOREIGN PARTS; 



Qi\]c foUotoing |)agcs, 



EXHIBITING SOME OF THE PRESENT FRUITS, IN THE UNITED 
STATES, PRODUCED BY THE EARLY EFFORTS OF 

THE FIRST MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN THE WORLD, 

ARE APPROPRIATELY DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS 



Chap. Page 

I. — Passage, and First Impressions. — New York 1 

II. — Long Island Sound. — Newport 7 

III.— New Bedford 12 

IV. — Boston. — The Bishop of the Eastern Diocesa 15 

v.— Sister Mary, St, Henry 19 

VI.— The North End 23 

VII.— Parenthetical 2G 

VIII.— The Churches of Boston 38 

IX. — Boston Sectaries 41 

X. — Some Natural and Artificial Features of Boston 44 

XL — Lowell. — Nashua. — Merrimack. — Amherst. — Goffstown. — 

Hopkinton. — Contoocockville 47 

XII. — Concord. — Epsom 52 

XIII. — Dover. — Portsmouth. — Newburyport. — Salem 59 

XIV. — Salem Witchcraft Delusion. — Object, and Conception of the 

Plot 65 

XV. — Salem Witchcraft Delusion. — Development and Execution 

of the Plot 74 

XVI. — Salem Witchcraft Delusion. — Discovery and Exposure of 

the Conspirators. — Fruits of Faith among the Victims ... 82 
XVII. — Salem Witchcraft Delusion. — The inquisitors Noyes and 

Mather 94 

XVIIL— Witchcraft Delusion in England.— Fruits of Faith 108 

XIX. — General Convention of the Church in 1835 113 

XX. — Rhode Island. — Narragansett Bay 133 

XXL— The Rhode Island Church.— Dr. Crocker 135 

XXIL— Collegiate System of the United States 138 

XXIIL— Providence.— Olncyville.— West Smithfield.— Fruits of the 

" Voluntary System" in New England 142 

XXIV. — Rhode Island Convocations 152 

XXV.— My First Parish .-.-.■, 156 



VI CONTENTS. 

Chap. Page 
XXVI. — Withdrawal from the Eastern Diocess, and Farewell of New 

England 159 

XXVII. — The Church in New England. — Retrospect. — Encouraging 

Prospect. — Mr. Newton's Testimony 163 

XXVIII.— New York.— Dr. Milnor.— Dr. Wainwright.— Mr. Colton. 

— The "Temperance Society." — The Bishop of Vermont 174 

XXIX.— A Sunday in Philadelphia 184 

XXX.— Philadelphia Lions 188 

XXXI. — Journey to Washington and Alexandria.— Indian Chiefs. .. 191 

XXXII.— Baltimore.— Dr. Wyatt 196 

XXXIII.— The " Roman Catholic" Society in America 201 

XXXIV.— Supplementary to the last 215 

XXXV.— Dr. Henshaw. — Dr. Dorr. — Philadelphia Female High 

School.— Return to New York 224 

XXXVI. — Boarding-House Life. — General Convention of 1838. — Gen- 

■ eral Theological Seminary. — Columbia College 232 

XXXVII. — Philadelphia. — Dr. Tyng. — Journey to the Interior. — Lewis- 
town. — Harrisburgh. — Settlement in my Second Parish. . 237 

XXXVIII.— [Old] York 242 

XXXIX. — The Church in Delaware. — Pennsylvania Convention 246 

XL.— Andalusia Murder.— Bristol 250 

XLL— The Hudson.— Katskill.—Kinderhook 257 

XLIL— Niagara 266 

XLIII.— A Week in New Jersey 271 

XLIV. — New York Convention. — Bishop Chase. — Dr. Lancey 277 

XLV. — The Pew Nuisance. — The Church versus Fashionable De- 
nomination 281 

XL VI.— The AUeghanies 287 

XLVII.— The Ohio River.— Steubenville.— American Climate 291 

XLVIIL— Pittsburg— The Mountains recrossed 295 

XLIX.— An Eloquent Preacher.— Reflections 297 

L. — Ministerial Preparation in the United States 304 

LI. — Rubrical Conformity 317 

LII. — General Convention of 1841 341 

LIII. — General Convention of 1841, continued. — The Pastoral Let- 
ter. — St. Paul's Church described 353 

LIV. — Journey to Michigan. — Rochester. — Parish Troubles. — 

Lake Erie 373 

LV. — Detroit. — Bishop M'Coskry. — Natural Features and History 
of Michigan. — Jackson. — The Indians. — A Missionary 

Priest 377 

LVI. — "New School" Presbyterianism. — Return to Philadelphia.. 386 



v^ 



CONTENTS. Vn 

Chap. Page 

LVIL— Philadelphia Suburbs.— The Artists' Fund Hall 395 

LVIII.— A Mourning Church lOi 

LIX. — Removal to Maryland. — Two " Puscyite" Rectors. — 
" Chapel Royal" at \Va.shington. — Rookvillc. — History 

of the Maryland Church 410 

LX. — Maryland Diocesan Convention. — Anti-Tractarian Move- 
ment. — Result 4'20 

LXI. — General Convention of 1844. — Spasmodic Action of Alarm- 
ists 4'27 

LXII. — An Episcopal Consecration. — The Bishop of Pennsylvania's 

Resignation. — The Bishop of New York's Trial 435 

LXHI. — Bishop Chase and Jubilee College 440 

LXIV. — Consecration of the Foreign Bishops. — Bishop Southgate 

and the Syrian Church 453 



PREFACE. 



The following sheets are intended to follow up 
the design of several recent works on the same 
subject ; the success of which, while it affords evi- 
dence of a growing interest amongst British Chris- 
tians in whatever relates to the cause of catholicity 
in America, appears fully to warrant another con- 
tribution to the same subject. 

The author has made no effort to shape and adapt 
his narrative to any established model in the same 
department of authorship ; nor is he prepared with 
any apology for the prominence which is given to 
himself — unavoidably in a journal embracing travels 
and scenes in public and domestic life, in the latter 
of which, it will be observed, he only appears as a 
" Spectator." 

That he has spoken favourably of the Americans 
as a people, arises from his long and intimate ac- 
quaintance with them ; during which he has asso- 
ciated with almost every class in that community. 
He cannot lend himself to a falsehood to make his 
book sell ; though it has to be proved whether defa- 



PREFACE. 



mation or grotesque caricature, applied to the people 
of a country, whose glory and greatness are our own, 
furnish the only staple conuuodities in this depart- 
ment of authorship. The Americans, as a race of 
people, inherit most of the good, and are free from 
many of the bad qualities which distinguish the 
nation w hence they have sprung ; nor has the free 
intermixture of continental blood effected any dete- 
rioration in their mental or physical qualities. The 
defects of character (arising solely from education) 
wliich distinguish a portion of them before the 
world, and the exhibitions of popular license which 
the country occasionally presents, originate in a 
combination of religious and political influences, in 
which the former has decidedly the largest share ; 
as in the following pages is attempted to be shown. 
The picture they present is drawn, however, with 
far less depth of shade than many wdiich others, 
belonging to a different religious communion from the 
author, have given before him. It is, indeed, unne- 
cessary to go any further than to the testimony of 
the public teachers, and the printed organs attached 
to the more respectable protestant sects in America, 
in confirmation of its accuracy of colouring ; as well 
as of the utter inefficiency of any existing institu- 
tion, formed by the " union^'' of sectarian i^ifiuence 
and action^ to grapple with the augmenting evils — 
social and political — now threatening that land. It 
is in this view that the Church Catholic, growing 
up so strong amidst surrounding strife and disunion, 



PREFACE. XI 



possesses an increased interest to the Cliristian 
pliilanthropist of the mother-country, to whom every 
stage of its progress, and particulars — perhaps, in 
tliemselves unimportant as matters of record — cannot 
fail of possessing some degree of interest. This 
consideration (added to the other, that persons and 
scenes are brought forward in these page^? as yet but 
little known to a large class of English readers) has 
weighed with the author in yielding to those im- 
pulses which an interesting ecclesiastical relation- 
ship, in a land where he was politically an alien, 
naturally produced, whilst as he penned these 
chapters, the memory recalled seasons of Christian 
intercourse never to be forgotten, and hallowed by 
many tender and sacred associations. It was in this 
relationship that the author first understood, in its 
full meaning, the reality of that catholic bond of 
union which— as intended by its Divine originator 
— breaks down and utterly annihilates the lines of 
national prejudice. Viewed, therefore, in this light 
— as a familiar narrative of a religious and social 
connexion with that branch of the one family of 
THE FAITHFUL which has spread out into a great 
American country from the larger growth in this, and 
which already numbers two millions of members, 
under twenty-eight bishops and thirteen hundred 
inferior clergy — no apology is necessary for any 
minuteness of detail which may contribute to fa- 
miliarize the reader with every jmrt of the picture 
here sketched. To catholic readers, nothing relating 



Xll PREFACE. 

to their fellow-catholics of the United States can be 
altogether uninteresting ; and it is for catholic read- 
ers that this book is written. 

These pages are also intended to demonstrate — if 
further historical demonstration be necessary — the 
Divine character of that glorious institution of epis- 
coPxVCY, which is the inseparable note and mark of 
the Church Universal in all its true branches, where- 
ever their blessed shade is afforded to the mendjers 
of the human family. This, the wonderful success 
attending the early, and, more especially, the later 
efforts of those who have been labouring under the 
banner of Apostolic Order in the Western Continent ; 
and the remarkable manner in which the ark which 
they guide (under the pilotage of her Divine Captain) 
has been saved from those fearful storms which have 
shattered, or greatly impaired, every other vessel 
around her, sufficiently prove to the eye of faith. 

May w^e not also hope that amongst all classes 
and creeds belonging to the two nations of a com- 
mon ancestry, whose interests and (it is to be ear- 
nestly desired) whose destiny is the same, the age 
of petty rivalry, for its own sake, is passing away 7 
" The rankling ill-will, and mutual backbitings," 
that Regina justly " deplores, even more than the 
prospect of open hostilities," is now almost confined 
to the lowest class of writers and politicians in either 
country. The vulgar brawlers of an electioneering 
party in the lower house of Congress are no more 
the exponents of the substantial class of citizens in 



PREFACE. Xiii 

one country, than are the ultra-radical faction in the 
House of Commons representatives of the intelli- 
gence and virtue of the middle and higher ranks in 
Britain. Let this be mutually undei'stood, and 
nothing will be wanting to complete a good under- 
standing between the intelligent classes of the two 
countries. 

Rcgina is also correct in affirming — wdiat the 
author's own experience has satisfactorily proved to 
him — that even amongst the demagogue political 
capitalists, the arrogance and conceit which is 
erroneously charged upon tlie whole nation is, in 
fact, only a " defensive" weapon, resulting from the 
contempt which it was fashionable for English 
writers and public speakers to express for America 
and her institutions long after the war which made 
her independent of the mother country. Nothing 
can be truer than the assertion of this sagacious 
writer : — " Their bragging and blustering is superfi- 
cial ; in their heart of hearts every Yankee loves 
and reveres old England. They vearn towards 
their fatherland, which they still, in unguarded 
moments, call ' home,' with an affection which jiceds 
hut little encouragement to become decided enthu- 
siasm ! The sovereign of these realms is still by 
them emphatically styled ' the queen,' as if no other 
female in the world wore the crown." 

Need anything more be added to show the unna- 
tural, and it may be added, the unnecessary alter- 
native -of a ivar with such a country 1 



XIV PREFACE. 



The people of the United States — the author'vS 
experience and intimate knowledge of them enable 
him to affirm it — those who form the mind of the 
nation, and who, it is hoped, will yet recover their 
legitimate control over the action of the country — 
are ready and desirous to join issue with us in secur- 
ing a lasting alliance, and in all the schemes for 
more enlarged benevolence to which such alliance 
must naturally lead. Despite their "defensive" 
egotism, the Americans are fully alive to the fact of 
British superiority, both in physical power and the 
higher achievements of art and learning ; claiming 
only equality of mental and intellectual greatness, 
the natural ingenuity and skill which has descended 
to them, and which they have undoubtedly im- 
proved, and the commercial enterprize whicli dis- 
tinguishes both nations alike, above all others on the 
globe. Amongst the members of the episcopal 
communion this sentiment is universal ; extending 
to a profound deference to England on all points 
relative to dogmatic theology and Church polity. 
England, as the land of the mother church, whose 
'' long continuance of nursing care" gave tlieir own 
a firm footing in the northern continent of the New 
World, is regarded with feelings of reverence and 
love by every Churchman : it therefore remains with 
the English nation, and especially the members of 
our national Church, to reciprocate a feeling based 
on such high and catholic grounds, in the spirit of 
the noble sentiment which forms (appropriately) the 



PREFACE. XV 

motto to this volume, and in the assurance — a well- 
founded one, as the author's observation fully con- 
vinces him that " the surest 'pledge of pei-petual peace 
between the two countries is to be found in their com- 
munity of faith and the closeness of their ecclesiastical 
intercow'sey 

Queen Square, Westminster. 
Feast of St. Matthew, 1 845. 



ECCLESIASTICAL 

REIINISCEICES 



CHAPTER I. 

PASSAGE, AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS. — NEW YORK. 

I SAILED from Bristol on the 25th of April, 1834, in the 
ship " Copia," a Newburyport merchantman, on its home- 
ward course from Java. The vessel was making its first 
voyage ; and being found, from its peculiar form, and the 
faulty construction of its deck, unfit for distant voyages, 
was condemned on its return to America, for foreign trade, 
and afterwards employed by its owners as a coaster. Ow- 
ing to this circumstance the passage was long and danger- 
ous, attended by great discomfort to the passengers (fom* in 
number with myself) who were driven from the cabin by 
the leaking of the deck in that part of the vessel, to the 
larger berths of the almost empty steerage. The constant 
leaking in the ship's bottom also obliged every passenger to 
assist frequently at the pumps, and kept the more timid on 
board in a constant state of apprehension for worse conse- 
quences. 

These were serious drawbacks from the comfort of the 
passage, and made me repeatedly regret having given the 
merchantman the preference to a Liverpool packet, which I 
had been led to do as a saving of one half the expense. 

1 



^ ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

The Newburyport captain asked twenty pounds for the pas- 
sage, and the charge by the regular packets was then thirty- 
five guineas ; the journey from Bath (where I took leave 
of my relatives) to Liverpool, making the whole expense 
by the latter more than double. Our captain did all in his 
power to lighten our difficulties. He was a man of some 
intelligence, and strictly moral in his deportment ; indeed, 
the whole crew afforded a better example of steady conduct 
than I have since observed on the Atlantic in five succeed- 
ing passages. Not an oath was heard between the two 
ports, nor any exhibition of drunkenness or insubordination. 
It was the captain's custom to call the sailors together for 
prayers twice every Sunday, and every evening that the wea- 
ther permitted ; and their exemplary behaviour v/as doubt- 
less the effect of this custom, and his own excellent example. 

The other cabin passengers were an elderly gentleman 
from Somerset, on his way to Toronto in Canada, accom- 
panied by his son, an interesting youth in his fifteenth year, 
and a medical relative, bound to the same place. On the 
10th of June we reached New York. 

The first appearance of this city as approached from the 
sea, after passing the Narrows, is unquestionably, one of 
the most picturesque that can be imagined. This arises 
more from its situation in the most beautiful bay in the 
world, than from any prominence of architectural elegance 
in the city itself ; indeed, when the ship neared the wooden 
and poorly constructed wharfs, and I saw nothing but 
staring red unsubstantial looking warehouses overlooking 
them, I experienced a sensation, which I am persuaded every 
Englishman partakes on his first arrival at this port, of pos- 
itive disappointment. Nor do I wonder at the admiration 
expressed by an American traveller* on landing at Liver- 
pool at " the perfection, the beauty, and the magnificence 
* The Rev. Calvin Colton, " Four Years in Great Britain," pp. 31. 



NEW YORK. 3 

of the masonry constituting the quays, docks and basins, 
contrasted with the wooden, feeble, and perishable docks 
and wharfs" of his own country. 

It should be remembered, however, that New York, 
though pretty ancient, has not had the benefit of a muni- 
cipal government long enough to compete in everi/ particu- 
lar with London or Liverpool ; though the changes I have 
myself witnessed during the past ten years afford a good 
earnest of what may be expected. Doubtless, within that 
same period the preference for stone to any less perishable 
material, which is showing itself in the public buildings and 
churches of America, will extend itself to the wharfs and 
quays of the Trans-atlantic seaports. 

Our luggage was soon examined by the Custom House 
officers, who were as polite and accommodating as could be 
wished, and conveyed to a hotel near the steam-boat wharf, 
whence my Canada bound friends designed embarking for 
Albany the same day. Here we breakfasted with an excel- 
lent appetite; of which, indeed, the quantity and variety 
of the viands were a sufficient provocative. Leaving our 
hotel for a stroll through the principal streets of the city, we 
shortly entered Broadway, which may be called its back- 
bone. Here I soon found my first impressions giving way 
before those of admiration and surprise as we pursued our 
way up this noble thoroughfare. About two-thirds of its 
length is lined with shops, many of which vie with the larg- 
est establishments in Fleet Street or Holborn, though infe- 
rior in size and outward splendour to the shops of the west 
end. The rest of Broadway consists of private residences ; 
several of which, as well as numerous houses in the north, 
or court end of the town, through which it passes, are elegant 
and sumptuous dwellings. The streets in this quarter are 
well built, and present an air of great neatness and cleanli- 
ness. 



4 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

If, however, I should express my first impressions of the 
general aspect of the streets in the business part of New 
York for pedestrian purposes, (and my last too) it might 
look, and would be pronounced by Americans, New York- 
ers especially, as ill-natured and exaggerated. I therefore, 
prefer presenting the life drawn picture given by the editor 
of the New York " Commercial Advertiser," a daily paper 
of high character, and the article written long since the pe- 
riod to which this chapter refers. 

" There is a great difference between New York and 
London, in the regulation of side walks for pedestrians. 
The difference appears to be decidedly in favour of London, 
as people can manage to get along the pavements of that 
city. How much more noble and democratic is the prac- 
tice in New York. Here, the side walks are put to their 
true uses. Wheel-wrights crowd upon them the damaged 
carts and waggons which they mean to repair at their leis- 
ure ; vendors of oranges, pine-apples, cherries, stale fish and 
the like, spread out their stalls upon them ; the boys ' slosh' 
them with water, from the hydrants, private and public ; 
grocers pile up their empty barrels all over them, six deep 
and three high ; stable keepers hitch their horses along 
them to vmdergo the pleasing process of currying, and the 
ladies get by as well as they can. All this is delightful to 
the philanthropic mind, and reflects infinite credit upon the 
municipal government.'' 

We passed some churches in the course of our perambu- 
lations. St. Paul's in Broadway, and St. John's in the square 
of that name, claimed at this time the first notice on the 
score of architectural merit ; but they are now eclipsed by 
the superior grandeur of Trinity, which has been five years 
in progress ; and will be, when completed, the most import- 
ant ecclesiastical building in the United States.* 

* See Appendix No. 1. 



BROOKLYN. 5 

As I had not at this time an introduction to a single per- 
son in this wide city, I only remained another day after 
seeing my fellow passengers off. We parted with mutual 
expressions of good will, and protestations of friendship, 
which the companionship of seven weeks on the ocean is 
well calculated to engender. I have rarely felt such keen 
regret, as on the occasion of this sudden and final separation 
from friends in a foreign land, where everything was new 
and strange. For the first tune was I fully conscious of my 
situation, and felt in a manner which the untravelled reader 
can Init faintly conceive, the distance of home — the thousand 
leagues of ocean that separated me from England. Return- 
ing to the hotel, I found little appetite for the meal which 
was spread, nor could any object or occupation shake off the 
excessive weight of gloom which pressed on my spirits at 
the close of this, my first day in America. 

I employed the next morning in a visit to Brooklyn. The 
view from the heights is the finest in the neighbourhood ; 
indeed, I have never seen anything, excepting Kattskill and 
London from Greenwich, which equals it. It takes in the 
entire Bay, covered with vessels of every size and nation ; 
promontories, batteries, and the city itself lying at your feet, 
completing a coup d^ceil of surpassing beauty. Wordsworth's 
picture of the latter came in a moment to my recollection, 
as with the alteration of a single word, equally descriptive 
of the prospect spread out before me : — 

" Earth has not anything to show more fair, 
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by 
A sight so touching in its majesty. 
The city now doth like a garment wear, 
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, 
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and churches lie 
Open unto the sea, and to the sky. 
All light and glittering in the smokeless air, 



ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Never did sun more beautifully steep 
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill. 
Ne'er saw I, never felt a calm so deep, 
The river glideth at his oven sweet will 
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep, 
And all the mighty heart is lying still." 



CHAPTER II. 

LONG ISLAND SOUND. — NEWPORT. 

The steam-boats which ply on the American waters have 
been so often descriljed, that I will only record the important 
fact that the one which conveyed me from New York to 
Newport, belonged to the largest and most complete of the 
class. After tea the passengers formed in groups round the 
ladies' cabin, or promenaded the spacious deck. Having 
secured a berth I remained above till near midnight, when 
descending to the saloon I found the supper tables removed, 
and all excepting a whist party retired to their separate 
berths. I regretted afterwards that I had not addressed my- 
self to my couch earlier, as the summons to the " passengers 
for Newport to get their baggage ready" broke on my ear 
when most inadequately recruited by scarce four hours rest. 
But Newport now stands out to view, and in a few moments 
more thirty or forty of us are landed at the wharf, and the 
huge boat ploughs her way onward towards Providence. 
We have passed through Long Island Sound and ninety 
miles of the open Atlantic, and are about one-third of the 
distance up Nanagausctt Bay. 

The hotel which received our party (all but myself being 
southern visitors to this favourite watering place) was one 
of the most comfortable I have put up at in the United 
States ; and the civility of the servants more marked, both 
at the inn, and in the families of Newport, than I found 
elsewhere in the northern States. Indeed, Newport and its 



8 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

precincts may be considered the Paradise of Englishmen, 
which is accounted for by the Enghsh origin of nearly all its 
citizens, some of whose pedigree ascends to the best parent 
stock of the mother country. I soon found cordial welcomes, 
and warm-hearted friends : and received on this, my first 
arrival, impressions which subsequent visits only helped to 
establish. There is nothing wanting in the society of New- 
port, that would be expected in the most refined circle of a 
fashionable English v/atering place. 

The church was one of the first objects which attracted 
my notice. It occupies a central position, and is graced with 
a well proportioned spire. Dr. Wheaton was at this time the 
rector. He had filled the incumbency twenty-three years. 
At a subsequent period of ray residence in America I was 
admitted to a very near and advantageous friendship with 
this worthy man, who is now deceased. Zion Church (in 
which I afterwards received ordination) was not at this time 
completed. It is about the same size as Trinity, and occu- 
pies a fine open site in the west end of tlie town. The Rev. 
John West, the first rector of this parish, holds a high place 
among the New England clergy. He is a good Hebrew 
scholar, and well versed in oriental literature ; he has since 
been transferred to the larger parish of St. John's, Bangor, 
in Maine ; of which (newly formed) diocese he is the most 
eligible candidate for the office of bishop ; a post for which 
Bishop Griswold alwa3^s designed him. 

Newport possesses more interest to the churchman than 
any other spot in the United States — next to Jamestowai in 
Virginia— as having been the place of residence and scene 
of the labours of Bishop Berkeley, an honored name in the 
early history of the Rhode Island Church. When Dean 
of Derry, in Ireland, he conceived the project of founding a 
university in America, and with this veiw, as well as of for- 
warding the sreneral interests of the American Church, he 



BISHOP BERKELEY. 9 

obtained from Sir Robert Walpole, George the First's min- 
ister, a promised grant of twenty thousand pounds, and re- 
moved to Rhode Island in September, 1728. " Here," 
writes Bishop Wilberforce, " he awaited the payment of the 
£20,000 endowment of his college. But a secrect influence 
at home was thwarting his efforts. His friends, in vain, 
importuned the minister in his behalf, and equally fruitless 
were his own earnest representations. The promised grant 
teas diverted to other objects. With the vigour of a 
healthy mind he was labouring in his sacred calling amongst 
the inhabitants of Rhode Island, making provision for his 
future college, and serving God with thankfulness for the 
blessings he possessed. ' I live here,' he says, ' upon land 
that I have purchased, and in a farm house that I have 
built in this island. * * * Amongst my delays and dis- 
appointments, I thank God I have two domestic comforts, 
my wife and my little son ; he is a great joy to us, v/e are 
such fools as to think him the most perfect thing in its kind 
that we ever saw.' For three years he patiently awaited 
the means of accomplishing his purpose ; until Bishop Gib- 
son extracted from Sir Robert Walpole a reply which brought 
him home. ' If,' said he, ' you put this question to me as 
a minister, I must assure you that the money shall most 
undoubtedly be paid as soon as suits with public conve- 
nience ; but if you ask me as a friend, whether Dr. Berke- 
ley should continue in America, expecting the payment of 
£20,000, 1 advise him by all means to return to Europe, and 
to give up his present expectations.' "* 

Thus disappointed. Dr. Berkely returned, and the wretch- 
ed minister who had deceived him, continued till his retire- 
ment from ol?ice deaf to all appeals on behalf of the Church 
in the colonies or any where else ! — The feeling of the 
English people at this time was also too " protestant," and 
* Wilberforce's History of the American Church, pp. 155. 



10 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the clergy too thoroughly Erastian to feel much sympathy 
for the distant members of the Church who constantly sent 
home earnest appeals for a colonial episcopate. Lulled in 
the arms of worldly selfishness, no efforts of Berkeley, as- 
sisted by Bishops Butler, Sherlock and Gibson, proved effec- 
tual in rousing either to an effort for their American breth- 
ren. The thing was a "novelty, — ^" an "innovation" on 
tlie " old" mode. They doulDtless regarded the proposition 
for supplying North America with an independant episco- 
pate as a " popish" scheme — for look ! in South America, 
the Spanish Church had erected (under a patriarch and six 
archbishops) thirty-two sees all filled.* 

Bishop Berkeley died in 1773. He had left an extensive 
library in Rhode Island, the remains of which still exist. 
A handsome tablet to his memory is placed in Trinity 
Church. I shall never forget that I preached my second 
sermon in his pulpit. 

Newport was one of the ports in the possession of the 
British during a great part of the Revolutionary War ; at the 
termination of which, though the population had diminished, 
it was incorporated as a " city." The beauty of the waters 
of the Narragansett Bay on which the island stands, and 
which is overlooked at Newport, is well known. The citi- 
zens are hyperbolical in their terms of admiration of the fine 
bay before their town ; but its " superiority to the Bay of 
Naples, or any other in the world" asserted by a native 
writer must be decided by those who, unlike the author, 
have had the opportunity of making the comparison. Com- 
bining the advantages of a sufficient depth of water for the 
largest ships, free access from the ocean, and — ^notwith- 

* In Cluecn Anne's reign the interests of the Church were better understood. 
That admirable and pious Queen favoured a plan for founding four bishopricks 
in America; two for the continent, and two for the islands; but her death put 
a stop to its accomplishment. 



NEWPORT. 11 

Standing its size, large enough for whole fleets — of being 
well land locked by Cananicut Island, it is certainly supe- 
rior as a harbour to any other on the Eastern coast of 
America. 

Congress has wisely established a navy yard here ; and 
government workmen have long been engaged in building 
extensive forts for the defence of the harbour. The occu- 
pancy of Newport by an enemy would not now prove so 
easy a matter as in 1776 ! 



CHAPTER III. 



NEW BEDFORD. 



I LEFT the hospitable roof of Captain , on one of the 

warmest days in June, for a visit to New Bedford in the 
neighbouring state of Massachusetts. The first part of the 
road lay through the fertile island of Rhode, which forms, 
however, an inconsiderable portion of the state so called. 
Two miles brought us to the village of Middletown, like 
every part of this island, very English in its aspect. At 
Portsmouth, four miles further on, a stone bridge crosses the 
strait (about a thousand feet in width at this point) to the 
main land. The face of the country was now changed for 
a stony sandy soil, which appearance continued nearly till 
the coach reached New Bedford, where we found dinner 
prepared for us at a comfortable hotel in the principal street 
of the town, to which we did ample justice. 

New Bedford deserves a fuller notice than the plan of my 
notes will allow, or than it has yet received from any Eng- 
lish tourist. It is altogether one of the handsomest built, 
and in point both of its fine situation, and the superior char- 
acter of its society, one of the most attractive towns in the 
United States. 

Buzzard's Bay, which indents Massachusetts from the 
south for about thirty-five miles, is remarkable for receiving 
no river properly so called. New Bedford, situated near the 
mouth of a cove or estuary called Acushnet River, is the 
entrepot of this bay. The whale oil business has brought 



NEW BEDFORD. 13 

a great deal of wealth to this place, which is seen in the 
style of many of the private residences, whicii, from the po- 
sition of the town on a bank declining to the water's edge, 
appear to great advantage from the river's surface, or the 
opposite bank, where another town of about a third of the 
size stands, called Fairhaven. The wealthy citizens of 
New Bedford manifest much taste in their dwellings, which 
are generally surrounded by spacious gardens, with con- 
servatories, shrubberies, etc. 

The morning after my arrival at New Bedford, being 
Sunday, I worshipped in the congregational meeting house. 
The " congregationalists" answer in their views of church 
government and doctrine to the " independents" among the 
dissenters in England ; who regard the independency of 
each congregation of Christians as the correct apostolic 
model ; and being Calvinists, differ only from the " particu- 
lar baptists" in the matters of infant baptism and open com- 
munion. As Massachusetts, which formerly included New 
Hampshire and Maine, was first colonized by the puritans, 
who were the progenitors of the congregationalists, this de- 
nomination nvmibers, as might be expected, many of the 
most respectable families and individuals in that section of 
the country, and the ministers are proportionably well ed- 
ucated. 

The Rev. James A. Roberts, the pastor of the congrega- 
tion, who preached on this occasion, was a fluent speaker. 
I heard him again in the evening when, in the course of 
an extempore discourse, he showed greater powers than the 
morning's sermon had l)rought to view. The style was 
characterised by vigour of thought, united to great liveliness 
of fancy, and a good share of elocution. 

There was no church under episcopal control erected at the 
time of my first visit to New Bedford. The baptist, congre- 
gationalist, and unitarian, with the quakers, methodists, 



14 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

and a small company of Romanists, embracing all the 
church going portion of the town. Mr. Bent, a presbyter 
of the diocess, was, however, holding regular services in a 
hired chapel lately vacated by a baptist society, to a feeble 
number. Through the praiseworthy exertions of that gen- 
tleman the number of converts to apostolic order soon be- 
came pretty numerous ; and a fine gothic church of ample 
dimensions in the principal street is now regularly filled 
with a serious and devout body of Avorshippers. 

It was at New Bedford that I first heard of the apostolic 
Griswold, with whose name and position in the American 
Church I afterwards found the dignitaries and clergy of 
the Church of England tolerably familiar. As the town 
was embraced within his diocess, he was extremely anx- 
ious to establish a congregation at so important a station, 
and had several times preached, and held services himself 
in the rooms and " upper chambers" of the primitive disciples, 
'• receiving all that came m unto him." 



CHAPTER IV. 

BOSTON. THE BISHOP OF THE EASTERN DIOCESS. 

Boston is another place which to an Enghshman pre- 
sents on first entering it, a striking and pleasing similitude 
to home. The streets, — the architecture of the houses,-— 
the very looks of the people abroad, — and the general as- 
pect of almost every thing that his eye encounters — all con- 
tribute to remind him that, though in the new world, he 
is in the metropolis of that particular section of it appropri- 
ately styled " New England.''^ 

This English aspect which marks every thing in Boston, 
is no where more strikingly seen than in the churches, 
whose sombre colored walls and oaken wood work, with 
the dark rich shade of drapery, and the curtained or stained 
medium, subduing the effect of a Trans-atlantic sky, com- 
municate that " dim religious light" which in an instant 
carries the English worshipper back to the glorious fanes 
of his native land. 

Such were my own sensations on taking my seat within 
the walls of Trinity Church the first time I entered that 
beautiful temple, whose battlemented tower, well decorated 
and substantial, and superb east window had several times 
attracted my notice in my earliest perambulations. On 
looking round, the air and appearance of the worshippers 
was sufficiently distingue. Numerous family groups occu- 
pied the luxuriantly (too luxuriantly) furnished pews which 
covered the spacious area. My immediate conjecture that 



16 ^ ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

this was the " fashionable church" of the aristocratic quar- 
ter where it stands, proved on after enquiry correct. 

But who is that venerable looking prelate seated in the 
episcopal chair which occupies the north of the altar ? His 
features and scanty grey locks, bespeak a man of perhaps 
eighty ; but no ! his upright form as he rises to the awaken- 
ing notes of the Te Deimi, and the fixed expression of 
his speaking eye tell that only seventy winters have pass- 
ed over his head. Right— he has performed the work of 
eighty years during forty years of ministerial service, twenty 
three of which have been devoted to the duties of the epis- 
copate. He is the " Bishop of the Eastern Diocess," and 
the Presiding Bishop of the episcopal church in the United 
States. 

I had heard and read of this distinguished ecclesiastic, 
and had seen his picture ; but the impression I had received 
was a faint one of the original, which embodied all that the 
imagination paints as peculiar to a patriarch or an apostle. 
Frequently as I met him in after days, and much as I heard 
of liis conversation in the most retired moments of his life, 
this impression was never lessened. His features uniformly 
expressed sanctity and benevolence, while his carriage com- 
bined dignity and the most childlike simplicity. 

The good bishop was present on a visitation of the Bos- 
Ion parishes, and after administering the apostolic rite of 
confirmation to a number of interesting youth he preached 
a sermon, which received the deepest attention from the 
numerous assemblage. The words flowed from his lips 
naturally and fervidly, and more than one moistened eye 
among the young recipients of the Holy Ghost, gave testi- 
mony to the force of his earnest exhortations. 

The " eastern diocess" it is known to my older readers, 
comprised the four States of Maine, New Hampshire, Mas- 
sachusetts, and Rhode Island, since erected into separate 



BISHOP GRISWOLD. 17 

sees. At Bishop GiiswolJ's death in 1843, there were 112 
parishes and clergymen in that district of country. A 
sniaU number, I admit, compared to its population, but con- 
siderable when compared with the number of clergy at the 
time he was consecrated to his office in 1811 ; when (though 
at that time the diocess included Vermont) there were only 
seventeen ! And what was the entire strength of the Amer- 
ican Episcopal Church at the time of his ordination to the 
lower rank in the priesthood in 1795 ? There were then 
only five bishops, and forty-nine clergymen in the whole 
United States. The heathen had come into the inheri- 
tance of the Lord, and laid Jerusalem on heaps. Her 
faithful worshippers were become a reproach to their neigh- 
hours ; a scorn and derision to them that were round 
about them. The vine which had been planted in the 
land by the Church of England, and watched by her with 
" a long continuance of nursing care,"* had been broken 
down, and almost plucked up. The property of the Church 
had been alienated, and applied to secular uses. Her ene- 
mies had confederated together against her — Edom with 
Moab — the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre — 
Asshur with the children of Lot, and had said, " Come 
and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the 
name of Israel may be no more in rcmembranceP 

Such was without figure the position of the Church in 
the United States at the time that the late presiding bishop 
first entered on his clerical duties, and the future primate 
was obliged, in addition to very arduous parochial labours, 
to eke out a slender support by taking the charge of a dis- 
trict school. " During the whole of my life," once remarked 
the bishop, " I have been constrained to be economical of 
time ; few probably of my age have spent less of it in amuse- 
ment and relaxation." And what was the spectacle which 
* Preface to the American Prayer Book. 

2 



18 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

this faithful servant in the gospel vineyard was permitted to 
behold before he was taken from the scene of his labours, 
after half a century* of persevering industry, during which 
he had risen by successive gradations to the highest post of 
ecclesiastical distinction ? — 

The Heavenly Husbandman had beheld and visited his 
vijie, the vineyard which his oion 7'ight hand planted ; it 
has taken deeji 7'oot, and filled the land ; the hills are 
covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof are 
like goodly cedars. iShe has sent her boughs to the sea, 
and her branches to the river. Twenty-one bishop sand a 
thousand faithful clergyf ministering to fifteen hundred 
congregations attested the gracious and protecting care with 
which the kind shepherd of Israel, who neither slumbers 
nor sleeps, had watched over the interests of his American 
flock ! 

* Including the period of his lay-readership. 

t The nmnber of American bishops is now 28, and of clergy 1240. 



CHAPTER V. 



SISTER MARY ST. HENRY. 



Dorchester Heights, occupied by Washington when 
he compelled the British to evacuate Boston in the first 
campaign of the revolutionary war, overlook the city from 
the south, and afford a fine view of the noble harbour and 
its numerous islands. 

As Boston has increased in population and wealth, the 
limits of the city have proportionably extended ; and Dor- 
chester Heights are now embraced within the regular city 
boundaries, and united to the old part by two bridges. The 
peninsula was, however, at the time of which I write, but 
partially covered with houses, and possessed many delight- 
ful walks with country prospects. I was several times at- 
tracted to this quarter of the town to catch the sea views, 
and explore the coves which indent its southern coast. 

There stood on the northern slope of the hill, a Roman 
Catholic chapel dedicated to St. Augustine. My course 
lay by this chapel one Monday afternoon, late in the au- 
tumn of 1834. A throng of people gathered about the 
gates opening on the burying ground, seemed to give inti- 
mation of an interment ; nor had I reached the turning of 
the road leading to the bridge, before the sounds of funereal 
music from beneath caught my ear, and the spectacle of a 
lengthened procession crossing it was distinctly visible. 

The music rose louder on the ear as the procession moved 
up the hill. First came a cross-bearer with a company of 



20 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

juvenile acolothists ; next a numerous choir of chanters, 
preceding the coffin, which was followed by several priests 
in their altar vestments, and a large confraternity of nuns, 
" men of the holy cross," sisters of charity, etc. ; the pro- 
cession being closed by a body of citizens. So numerous 
was the latter class, tliat the line of procession extended 
unbroken from the chapel to the bridge, and was formed, as 
I afterwards learnt, of more than five thousand persons. 

Curiosity impelled me to ascertain whose death it was 
that had called forth this exhibition of sympathy, and with 
this view I mmgled in the tram. I soon learnt that the 
deceased was a nun of the Ursuline Convent, of whose de- 
struction by incendiaries a short time previous I had heard 
much. 

The erection of the first conventual establishment in the 
New England States, where a strong and almost universal 
jealousy towards papacy may be said to be an hereditary 
sentiment among the native population ; and that estab- 
lishment near the capital of the state, and adjoining 
Bunker Hill, was a highly obnoxious circumstance to the 
people of Charlestown ; and some of the abuses incident to 
such establishments coming to light, the buildings were one 
night burned to the ground by an incensed mob. 

No good citizen will defend such a breach of the peace 
in a community where all Christians have an equal claim 
on the protection of the laws, in the exercise of their relig- 
ious opinions. Bishop Griswold pronounced it " an enor- 
mous outrage, condemned and detested by every pious pro- 
testant in the country, and calculated to excite the sympa- 
thy of thousands, and to tend to the increase of such insti- 
tutions. I hope," added the bishop, " through God's bless- 
ing, I may never have ' little charity' for any denomination 
of Christians, and especially for those who steadfastly main- 



SISTER MARY ST. HENRY. 21 

tain so many of the essentials of Cliristianity as do the Eo- 
man Cathohcs."* 

The alarm reached the convent, Avhich lay abont a mile 
from the town, after the inmates had retired to rest. They 
were directed to leave the building, no personal injury be- 
ing intended to any one. One of the nuns, called Sister St. 
Henry, did not, however, receive the summons so soon as 
the rest, and fled, scarcel}^ dressed, from the building into 
wdiich the mob were now rushing, crossed a high wall, and 
losing her way among swampy lands, became greatly ex- 
hausted before she at length found shelter in a cottage. 

* It is due to the bishop that I subjoin his strictures on the conventual system. 
" Imprisonment for life is justly deemed the greatest of punishments, that of 
death excepted ; many think that even this should not be excepted. And to me 
it has seemed strange that a civilized people, Christians even, should suffer their 
citizens, without law or conviction of crime to be thus wholly debarred of their 
liberty. Is it right 1 is it not very great cruelty, that a young girl — because in 
a fit of enthusiasm or disgust with the world, or for any other cause she enters 
the convent, she should endure in consequence, this dreadful piuiishment ? If 
it is said that she is reconciled to her condition and happy in her confinement, 
why not then tear away the grates, open the doors of her prison, and release 
her from all restraint 1 Do this and then — and not till then — shall we believe 
that she has no desire for liberty. That such hopeless confinement has, in ages 
past, caused a vast deal qficretchedness is known to the world. How much suf- 
fering has been endured in nunneries we shall not know till that day when the 
secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, and the works of darkness be brought to 
light. But I would not dwell on this: 1 am pleased in believing that those suf- 
ferings, and indeed the number of convents, are being diminished. * * No 
one I believe is more averse to persecution than myself; and though I view the 
vows of those who enter cloisters as sinful, as tempting God, as swearing that 
they will never do what may afterwards appear to be their duty, and the will of 
God respecting them; and though I view the imprisomnerd of nuns as wholly 
unjustifiable, I am neither authorized nor desirous to judge those who think dif- 
ferently. To their own master let them stand or foil. As convents have been 
generally managed I view them as prejudicial to morals, and to religion. Yet 
if the vows and the imprisonment were discontinued they might be rendered use- 
ful as charitable institutions for the benefitof some whose age, or state of health, 
or other circumstances render such an asylum both convenient and justifiable." 
—The Reformation, pp. 100—2- 



22 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES- 

From this retreat she was removed, with the rest of the sis- 
terhood, to General Dearborn's mansion at Roxboro, which, 
by the pohteness of its gallant owner, afforded a temporary 
shelter to the expelled occupants of the Charlestown con- 
vent. But the fever which the exhaustion of that night 
produced resisted every effort of medical skill, and Sister 
Mary died after a few weeks of patient suffering. 

The victim to popular fury was beautiful and very ac- 
complished ; and her death excited warm commiseration 
from all classes ; not the less among those who had shared 
in the feelings which originated the act of violence than 
among Romanists themselves : by many of the former was 
she attended to her last home. Whilst we cannot, with 
justice, charge the event of her death upon the Charle-town 
rioters as its i)iirposed instruments, yet who can help shar- 
ing the tear of sympathy that bedews almost every cheek 
in that mournful train which now follows the last remains 
of one so young and fair ! 

The foremost part of the procession has now reached the 
chapel, Avhose portals are opened for the admission of the 
body. The De jjrofundis, chanted alternately in its prog- 
ress hitherto by the priests and choristers, has ceased its 
mournful long drawn notes ; all heads are reverentially 
uncovered as the clergy enter the burying ground, and one, 
whose episcopal habit declares him to be a bishop, com- 
mences the burial service ; the chapel, under whose pave- 
ment the body of Sister Mary is to be interred, is soon filled 
with the immediate followers of the corpse, consisting of the 
attendants, the Rellgieiises and the chief mourners ; and 
as the lengthened shadows of the evening become blended 
with the increasing darkness, the crowds which have been 
augmenting round the chapel since the procession halted, 
gradually and quietly disperse. 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE NORTH END. 



The quarter of Boston familiarly known as " the North 
End," embraces all that part of the peninsula on which the 
city is built lying north of Faneuil Hall. Like the east 
end of London, once the abode of wealth and state, it is now 
deserted by the denizens of fashion. Its narrow and crook- 
ed streets, and the looks of the houses, speak of an age gone 
by. In the centre of this neighbourhood old Christchurch 
rears its lofty spire, and the l^rick tower on which it is based, 
and which contains a fine peal of bells, is regarded by the 
inhabitants with an affection truly filial. 

Salem Street, in which Christchurch stands, is the main 
thoroughfare of the North End. Here the matronly 
tenant, and the youthful miss of Snow Hill, and the spinster 
boarder of Prince Street and the North Square purchase 
their finery, to be displayed among the throng of church 
goers who jostle each other in Salem Street on Sunday. 
In this part of the city old fashioned dwelling houses meet 
the eye, with projecting upper stories and roofs ; windows, 
with small diamond shaped panes of glass in leaden frames, 
and numerous other vestiges of antiquity. 

Copp's Hill, on which my reader has doubtless stood ; 
transported thither by the magic pen of the novelist Cooper, 
on the night previous to the memorable battle of Bunker 
Hill, is in this quarter. The greatest part of the eminence 
is occupied as a burial ground, covered with a countless 



24 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

variety of head stones, and ruined monuments. On many 
of these are the crests and other heraldic emblems of the 
anti-revolutionary governors, and titled residents of " Mas- 
sachusetts Bay colony." 

But I must not forget the churchy which is nearly a cen- 
tury and a quarter old. It is in the style of most English 
churches, with a spire 175 feet high. Some years ago the 
interior was remodelled by the vestrymen ; the large east 
window closed up and its place supplied by an altar piece, 
the work of a native artist. On the architrave over the 
chancel, are the words " (JTIjis is none otl)cr tl)an tl)c ^ox\u 
of Sob, anb tljis is tl)c (5atc of i^caucn," over which is a 
finely executed representation of the descent of the Holy 
Spirit. In this church is a monument and bust to the mem- 
ory of Washington, the first one erected in the country. 

I had been spending a December afternoon inspecting the 
old burying ground on Copp's Hill, and was returning to 
my lodgings through Salem Street, when the bells of Christ- 
church broke forth into a merry peal ; and seeing some 
persons, from different points, directing their steps towards 
the parish temple, I approached it, and crossed the venera- 
ble portals just as the choir commenced the rehearsal of a 
Christmas anthem. I should have supposed this prepara- 
tory musical exercise was the object of the open church but 
for the illuminated chancel and pulpit which gave intima- 
tion of the ensuing service. The practice of keeping Christ- 
mas Eve I found to be not an uncommon one in America ; 
and the numbers who soon began to fill the church this 
evening betokened no inconsiderable degree of interest in 
the solemnities of the occasion. The service was conducted 
by two priests, the youngest of whom delivered an animated 
address from the pulpit on the approaching festival of the 
Nativity. Before the congregation dispersed, the organ 
which had accompanied a full and very efiicient choir of 



CHRISTMAS EVE. ^a 

singers in the Cant at i and Deus Miser eatnr, again struck 
up in the notes of an anthem paraphrased from the second 
chapter of St. Lul^e. 

This observance of Christmas Eve was an example of 
reverence for ancient usage for which I was quite unpre- 
pared in America. Christmas Eve is a vigil in the Church 
of England — or to speak more correctly, it is marked in the 
English Prayer Book as such, on the same table with the 
evenings preceding fifteen other festivals ; though (with the 
exception of Easter Eve) observed, I suspect, as little as a 
vigil as either of these evenings. This table is however 
expunged in the American Prayer Book, together with the 
names of all the Saints in the English Calendar for whom 
no Collect and Gospel is appointed. 



CHAPTER YIL 



PARENTHETICAL. 



A FEW days after, I received an invitation from a vestry- 
man of the parish to a seat in his family pew whenever I 
attended the church, of which I several times availed my- 
self ; but my imperfect acquaintance with the constitution 
and peculiarities of the episcopal Church as existing in 
America, gave me at this time a distaste for its worship 
which induced my attendance on other ministrations. I 
regarded it as a mere branch of the English establishment, 
which had survived the revolution ; unsuited in its govern- 
ment, polity, doctrines, and worship to the country where 
I had taken up my abode. Subsequent examination and 
study showed me the magnitude of this error ; and brought 
to my more matured knowledge that the Church Episcopal 
as existing in the United States, is in its framework more 
adapted to the genius of American institutions than any 
other denomination in the country — in its doctrines as pure 
— and in its worship more republican. The book of com- 
mon prayer is as well suited to the atmosphere of a repub- 
lican assembly as to the worshippers in the Chapel Royal. 

" I would very briefly show," writes Bishop M'Coskry,* 
" the beautiful analogy which exists between the ecclesias- 
tical institutions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of 
the United States, and the civil institutions of the United 
States. 

* In his pamphlet " Bishops Successors of the Apostles." p. 51. 



THE AMERICAN CHURCH. Zl 

" At the time of our civil revolution, the Church, as is 
well known, separated herself entirely from the jurisdiction 
of a foreign bishop,* and declared her independence ; but 
she never could forget that ' she is indebted, under God, to 
the English Church for her first foundation, and a long con- 
tinuance of nursing care and protection. t 

" Having received the apostolic succession from this 
Church, by which she couldin crease her ministry, and ex- 
tend her influence, her first efforts were made to conform 
her whole human orginization and legislation to that 
adopted and followed by the people of this country in refer- 
ence to their civil government. The consequence was, that 
the government of the Protestant Episcopal Church m the 
United States, became truly republican in its character, as 
we will hereafter see, and m which I have no hesitation in 
saying that the rights of the people are better secured than 
in any other ecclesiastical organization ; for there are no 
permanent officers, so far as the laity are concerned, but 
fresh representatives are yearly selected by the people, and 
have a voice in all her legislation. 

* The Bishop of London. It is in the highest degree crcditahle to the pre- 
lates who have since the separation [which Monsieur of " The Tablet" will 
please observe was not a dismemberment of one branch of the Church from its 
mother stem, but a peaceful creation only of a separate independent legislature, 
conformable with universal catholic precedent] filled the see of London, that 
none of the friendly feeling and co-operation with the heads of the American 
Church has been discontinued ; on the contrary they have voluntarily assumed 
nearly as much interest in her afl'airs, and given as much time out of that de- 
manded by the greatly augmented duties since attached to the laborious and 
unenviable post o{ Bishop of London to this object as was formerly exacted from 
them. In the case of the present diocestin, frequent pecuniary assistance on 
the most Uberal scale towards the objects of church building, etc. has been added 
to those offices of friendly welcome and personal assistance which are uni- 
formly rendered to the American visitors to England (not a few) who are intro- 
duced to his lordship's notice. 

t Preface to the American Prayer Book. 



28 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" But I will present the analogy to our civil govern- 
ment : — 

" In both, the power of government resides primarily in 
the whole people. 

" In both, the forms of government are representative. 
In the Church, however, there are no limitations in the ap- 
plication of the principle of universal suffrage. 

" The parish meetings, and the town or district elections 
are analogous. 

" The parish vestries, and the select men, or common 
councils of the lowns or cities are analogous. 

" The union of parishes into dioceses, and the union of 
towns or countries into states are analogous. 

'•'■ The independence of the several dioceses, and the inde- 
pendence of the several states are analogous. 

" The union of the several dioceses into one General 
Convention, and the union of the several states into one 
General Government are analogous. 

•' The Diocesan Conventions with their secretaries ; and 
the State Legislatures with their secretaries, are analogous. 

" The representation in the Diocesan Conventions and 
the representation in the State liegislatures from the people 
directly, are analogous. 

" The General Convention of the United Dioceses, and 
the general Congress of the United States are analogous. 
The House of Bishops in the former corresponding to the 
Senate in the latter, and the house of Clerical or Lay depu- 
ties in the former corresponding to the house of Represen- 
tatives in the latter. 

" But sufficient proof is here given to show how scrupu- 
lously careful the Church has been to guard as well as 
secure the rights of every member of her fold. The poor- 
est member has an equal voice in her councils with the 



THE AMERICAN CHURCH. 29 

most wealthy and influential, and no law is imposed upon 
any without their own consent."* 

The testimony of another American bishop, the Right 
Rev. Dr. Henshaw of Rhode Island, to this almost perfect 
analogy, and the conservative character of the Church epis- 
copal on even republican institutions, in an address at lay- 
ing the corner stone of a cathedral in the city of Provi- 
dence, his see, will be appropriately added to that of the 
northern bishop. 

" While we intend that the structure now commenced 
upon this foundation shall do honor to the liberality of its 
proprietors, be an ornament to this beautiful and prosperous 
city, and a credit to our common country ; our chief hope 
is that it may be, in some humble measure, worthy of the 
high and holy uses to which it is to be devoted. 

" The edifice which is to be raised here will have a char- 
acter stamped upon it widely different from that of the 
buildings which surround it. They are designed for the 
benefit and accommodation of man as an inhabitant of 
the world that now is, this is intended to minister to his 
welfare as an expectant of that which is to come. They 
have connexion exclusively with the things of Earth ; this 
will be chiefly devoted to those of Heaven. Not only so. 
It will difler from many of the 7'eUgious structures around 
it, not only in its style of architecture, but also in reference 
to important points of faith and order and worship, in 
whose support and propagation it will be employed. The 
Protestant Episcopal Church, although among us the eldest 
daughter of the P^e formation, has been too often viewed 
with feelings of distrust and aversion by her younger sis- 

* That a Church represented by its enemies as incurably aristocratic in its 
polity and constitution, should thus mould itself to republican institutions with- 
out a change in its essential features is explained by its being of divine origin, 
and therefore, intertded for " every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people." 



30 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ters. She has been too httle known in this region of our 
country, and on this account, has been misapprehended and 
traduced. She has no dread of the most rigid scrutiny into 
her principles and institutions : for this has uniformly con- 
tributed to her elevation m the estimation of the wise and 
good. She makes no complaint of those who oppose her 
with the weapons of fair and manly controversy ; for they 
serve only to illustrate the strength of her position and the 
granite durability of her bulwarks and buttresses. But 
there is cause to blush for the honour of our common Chris- 
tianity when, after she has proved impregnable in the war- 
fare of calm discussion and dignified argument, — the appeal 
is changed from the understandmg to the passions, from 
reason to prejudice, and she is assailed by the shafts of 
sarcasm and satire pointed by the wit of the grave orators 
of New England dinners, and the Reverend song-makers 
of the Tabernacle. 

" We have reason to be thankful that the day is past 
when our good puritan forefathers imprisoned the quakers, 
ostracised the baptists, and forbade episcopalians to use the 
Book of Common Prayer, because, forsooth, they come to 
this western world to enjoy religious liberty, and to worship 
God according to the dictates of their own consciences ! 
But we live in an age of public excitement and gross preju- 
dice, unfavourable to the calm investigation of truth. It 
may not be amiss, therefore, on the present occasion, when 
we are surrounded by many fellow Christians of other 
names to take a brief notice of some of the popular objec- 
tions to our Church, and attempt to show that it is entitled, 
at least, to toleration and respect in a free and enlightened 
community. 

" One of the vulgar objections to our Church is — that it 

is ARISTOCRATIC. 

" This objection must be made either with refei'ence to 



THE AMERICAN CHURCH. 31 

the nature of its ministry^ the character of its govern- 
tneiit^ or its practical injluencc in society. And which- 
ever view may be taken of its bearing, an impartial investi- 
gation will show that it has its origin in ignorance or mis- 
conception. 

" Does the objection arise from the disparity of orders 
in the ministry? Our only answer is — that we consider 
the Christian Ministry, as a Divine, not a human, institu- 
tion. We receive it as it was appointed by the authority of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and transmitted by his Apostles to 
succeeding generations. The same orders of the ministry 
existed in the New Testament Church, under the names of 
apostles, elders, and deacons. The same orders existed 
without opposition in the Church universal for fifteen 
hundred years ; and the same orders now exist in every 
quarter of the globe, and are acknowledged by nine- 
teen-twentieths of the Christian world. If the alleged 
odious feature, therefore, be inherent in the disparity of 
orders, we believe it to be one which no human au- 
thority has the power to remedy. But unless the two 
lower orders of the ministry universally or generally com- 
plain that their Fathers in Christ become their oppressors, 
lord it over God's heritage, and govern them with the rod of 
tyranny instead of the law of love ; unless the people com- 
plain that our ministry is more intolerant, bigoted and dog- 
matical — ^more disposed to entrap or oppress Aveak con- 
sciences — and more inclined to impose restraints upon lib- 
erty of thought and action than that of other names, we 
shall view the objection as a nullity ; and continue to be- 
lieve that the rule established by the Head of the Church 
for the regulation of his household is best adapted to pro- 
mote the spiritual good and the true liberty of its mem- 
bers. 

" Does the charge of aristocracy refer to the system of 



32 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

our Ecclesiastical polity and government 7 It serves 
only to betray recklessness or want of information on the 
part of the objector. Let any man examine the constitu- 
tion and canons of our Church, and he will not fail to per- 
ceive the striking resemblance between them and the civil 
institutions of this great confederation of republics. In our 
parochial arrangements for the annual primary assemblies 
of the people to elect their vestries and other local officers 
■ — behold the counterpart of our municipal elections. The 
Bishop, Standing Committee, and convention of Clerical 
and Lay Delegates in each Diocese, answer to the Governor, 
Council and Legislature of the respective States ; while the 
General Convention — composed of the House of Bishops 
and the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, representing 
the various dioceses, and constituting the supreme legisla- 
tive power of all, — has an exact resemblance, in its general 
character and powers, to the Congress of the United States, 
composed of the Senate and House of Representatives. 
And the Presiding Bishop may, to a limited extent, be con- 
sidered as exercising, in our ecclesiastical constitution, pow- 
ers and prerogatives resembling those which pertain to the 
chief magistrate of the Union. While the rights of the 
clergy, as an order of divine appointment, are not infringed 
upon, the rights and powers of the laity are sacredly se- 
cured. So much so, that in this Church (which some igno- 
rantly traduce as a system of priestly domination,) not an 
election can be made, from the choice of a vestryman, or the 
licencing of a deacon, up to the consecration of a bishop, 
without the consent and approbation of the people ; nor can 
a canon be enacted or a rubric changed without their co-ope- 
ration. The combined power of bishops, priests and dea- 
cons is held in check by the co-ordinate power of the laity. 
" Is the charge of being aristocratic intended to reproach 
us with the fact that many of the more wealthy and re- 



THE AMERICAN CHURCH. 33 

fined and 'powerful in society are found numbered in our 
flocks 7 We consider it no reproach to tlie Church that so 
many of the educated and distinguished are not slow to ac- 
knowledge her excellencies, and feel her attractions. But 
her portals are alike open, and her precious gifts alike of- 
fered to the poor and the rich, to the humble and the ele- 
vated. They all meet in her courts as upon a level before 
the Maker of them all ; and, in -the privileges of a common 
communion, realize that they are one in Christ Jesus. 

'• Is it said that the influence of our Church is adverse 
to popular freedom ? We bless God that his kingdom is not 
of this world ; that the ministers of this Church degrade not 
their sacred calling by mingling in the strife and animos- 
ity of party politics ; and her people are left free to choose 
their own sides, and form their own alliances ; while the 
conservative influence of the whole body is felt in strength- 
ening the foundations of order — Heaven's first law, — and 
cementing the institutions which bind society together. 

" If there were any thing in the principles and institu- 
tions of our Church inconsistent with the genius of our free 
government, it is passing strange that it should have es- 
caped the clear-sighted vision of the Washingtons, the 
Hamiltons, the Jays, the Pinkneys, the Madisons and the 
Marshalls* of a departed generation— and many of the 

* " The Churcli, I say, which as American Christians ought to be as dear to 
every Ciiurchman as that country itself. For as I write these lines the merry 
peals of old Chrishchurch bells linger on my ear ; they have been welcoming 
the birth day of our beloved Washington. And George Washington was a 
protestant Episcopalian, a member of the holy Catholic Church in these United 
States. 

" Here is a claim which the Church has upon us as Amerkans which ought 
not to be forgotten. In her organization, she corresponds most happily with 
the organization of our country. Sprung as she has from the same source 
whence we derive our national origin, for as Churchman and as Americans we 
look back to old England ; founded as the Church was by the same hands that 
laid the corner-stone of our Republic ; boasting as she does that her best loved 

3 



34 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

brightest ornaments of our legislation and jurisprudence in 
the living one — who, while receiving the reverence and 
honours due to the ablest supporters and expounders of the 
liberties of the country, deemed it their duty and privilege 
to attend upon the services of the Church and contribute to 
her support." 

From arguments like these, my objections against a com- 
munion to which (though 1 had received part of my educa- 
tion from her ministers — had constantly worshipped in her 
temples — and had been taught from infancy to venerate) I 
had never regularly belonged, were effectually removed. 
But how partial is the work in winning converts to the 
Church in her apostolic integrity, to reconcile them merely 
to her laws and usages, and acquit our glorious Mother in 
the eyes of her new children of the libellous accusations, 

bishop was the chaplain of our Congress ; that the leader of the American 
army was a communicant at her altar; — these things considered, we do well to 
think and speak of them, and to feel an honourable pride both in the thought 
and speech. 

" When, then, you hear the members of the Romish sect boasting of their 
Carroll of CarroUton, hear them patiently, for aright honourable patriot he was, 
and does honour to the name of Romanist which he bore : — but let these friends 
of ours be instructed, that to the Church of Lee, and Rutledge, and Middleton, 
and Jay, and Hamilton, and Madison, and Marshall, and Morris, of Bishop 
White and George Washington, it belongs to claim the gratitude of this 
American people. 

" Long, then, may old Christchurch bells ring their merry chime, to welcome 
the birth day of George Washington, a communicant of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church. Old bells, ye have the right, for your music is the music of ancient 
days ; ye can chaunt the natal song of all the denominations about you ; and 
may ye remain to sound the glorious requiem, which shall tell of Romish and 
dissenting brothers, dead to their violations of the Church's unity, and born 
again to the privileges of that apostolic branch of the holy Catholic Church, the 
American Protestant Episcopal Church." — From the Rev. William H. Oden- 
heimer's charming little volume " The True Catholic no Romanist." p. p. 43. 

This talented young preacher and true hearted Catholic is the successor of 
the present Bishop of W^estern New York in the rectorship of St. Peter's, Phil- 
adelphia. 



THE AMERICAN CHURCH. 35 

and the gross slanders of her opponents. She needs no 
" Apology !" Her ministry, sacraments, and ritual, are the 
blessed heritage, even of returning recusant children. As 
the spouse of Christ we do the Church dishonour by leav- 
ing the argument at this point, when we retort the foul 
calumnies of her schismatic enemies against the purity of 
her doctrines, and the soundness of her institutions. 

It was, however, more than a year after receiving orders 
in the " Protestant Episcopal American Church," that the 
true and actual position of that " denomination" was under- 
stood. That position is well defined by a distinguished 
western presbyter* of the same, in a sermon preached in St. 
Paul's Church, New Albany, Indiana, on the ordination of 
the Rev. Dr. Wylie, President of Indiana University, (a 
convert from " new school" heresy to catholic truth) in 
1841, with which I close this chapter of extracts. 

" My western hearers, be not startled by the word, ' Cath- 
olic.^ Our Saviour Christ established but one Church upon 
the earth. This extended itself into various countries, and 
in them continued one. It filled the land of England 
among others, where it kept at divers times more or 
less of its original purity ; and at the period of the Refor- 
mation especially, while it adhered to every essential of its 
primitive ordinance and belief, dropt certain modern corrup- 
tions. It was one before doing so, one in doing so, one afi- 
ter doing so. Its bishops led, and the clergy and laity 
united in the reform. Of its more than nine thousand min- 
isters, only one hundred and twenty-seven refused. As the 
Old, Great, Common Church of the land, it so acted — that 
is as the Catholic Church ; for this word is not strictly a 
name, but expresses nature, somewhat as the word Christ 
expresses office. This word catholic means general ; and 
when applied to the Church in any nation it testifies that 
* The Rev. Samuel Rovsevelt Johnson, Rector of Lafayette, 



36 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

such Church is the true representative in that land of the 
ancient General Catholic Church, which from Jerusalem 
spread out into all countries ; that it is a true part and 
member of that one great society which Christ Jesus 
founded, and left upon the earth as his church ; that it is 
a religious society not different from that, either by having 
separated from its fold, or by being an entirely new inven- 
tion, or a construction independent and somewhat similar in 
pattern. Had the Church in England of itself assumed any 
other name, or had another been imposed by the world, it 
would still be the old, general (or catholic) Church of Christ 
in England. So it remained ; and for some time, the one, 
07ily religious body in the land. From it, after certain years, 
the followers of the Roman Obedience, at the command of 
their foreign head, separated into schism ; after that, the 
puritans and others dissenting, followed them in the same 
bad way — bad because Christ had forbid such separation, 
had commanded unity as a body. But it has ever kept on 
its steady course, continuing to be what it ever was, — the 
Old Great, Common, General, Catholic, Apostolic Church 
of our Saviour Christ in England. 

" We are Anglo-Saxons as a nation, of the same stock 
and language, and to us the same Church belongs. It 
alone had the natural right to be guardian over our spiritual 
welfare, and provide for us Christ's ordinances ; and that 
care it has exercised. What claim has the Italian Church 
over an Anglo-Saxon Christian nation in America, especially 
where its own native Church was in possession, and her 
chief pastors were " keeping watch ?" What can elevate 
separatists in the mother land to be the old, true Church 
here ? We who are named " episcopalians" are the legiti- 
mate offspring of that ancient mother ; our bishops were 
consecrated by her bishops ; our ministry is derived from 
Christ through her ; from her we spring as child from the 



THE AMERICAN CHURCH. 37 

mother, of the same blood, nature and spiritual inheritance. 
We form not one out of many Christian denominations, but 
are the original Christian Family from which the other de- 
nominations separated, contrary to the Saviour's will and 
ordinance ; they are sects — we the church. Christians 
removing from their own country into another, never in an- 
cient times thought of starting as a new " denomination" 
there, but always fell into the regular ranks of Christ's com- 
mon Church. Thus ours is the true, and only Catholic 
Church of Christ in these United States, and to it all Christ's 
disciples should belong. This ought to be our only desig- 
nation., and then others and we ourselves would see our 
claim and our position aright. The history of a few years, 
or one selected principle should not in any nation give name 
to the Church of Christ, which belongs to all Christian cen- 
turies, and which has all the elements of truth. If it may 
be named " The Protestant Episcopal," because it has pro- 
tested against Roman additions, and testified to the Episco- 
pal Succession, as well might it l)e named " The Witnessing 
Baptist," because, beyond any other religious society in the 
land, it clearly and fully witnesses true Christian baptism ; 
— testifying to the truth of its administration, excluding none 
of its lawful modes ; — testifying to the truth as to its subjects, 
excluding none of its lawful subjects ; — testifying in its in- 
structions to the truth of its nature, excluding none of its 
lower offices, or its higher or supernatural mysteries of gift 
and nature ; — testifying to the very essence of the sacra- 
ment by the unquestionable validity of the ministry which 
administers the sacrament. I look for it, that the church- 
men in the West, the plain-spoken, straight-forward West, 
which ever likes to call known things by right names, will 
be those, who knowing that they have the reality, will 
take the lead in claiming the rightful name of the 

church of CHRIST, THE CATHOLIC, IN AMERICA." 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BOSTON CHURCHES. 



Having introduced my readers to two of the Boston 
churches, I will add a short historical and descriptive notice 
of several others. The next in importance to Christchurch 
is St. Paul's ; it stands in Tremont street facing " the com- 
mon," as a park-like enclosure of seventy-five acres laid out 
and planted like the Green Park, is familiarly called. This 
beautiful church, constructed of fine grey granite, has been 
built after a Grecian model. A projecting portico is sup- 
ported by six Ionic columns of Potomac stone approached 
by a flight of steps. Its general external appearance is 
pure and classic. 

" The interior of St. Paul's" writes another pen " is re- 
markable for its simplicity and beauty, and the materials 
of which the building has been constructed give it an in- 
trinsic value and an effect which have not been produced 
by any imitations of the classic models that have been at- 
tempted of bricks and plaster in other cities. The erection 
of this church may be considered the commencement of an 
era in the art in Boston ; and although from its situation it 
is somewhat obscured, the beauties it displays have al- 
ready had a sensible influence on taste in architecture." 

St. Paul's church was several years in erection ; it was 
consecrated by the bishop of the diocess on the 30th of 
June 1820, and Dr. Samuel F. Jarvis, the first rector of the 
parish, was instituted on the 7th of the following month. 



BOSTON CHURCHES. 39 

This gentleman has had three successors ; Dr. Alonzo 
Potter, now Bishop of Pennsylvania, who succeeded in 
1826, Dr. John S. Stone, who became rector in 1832, and 
Dr. Vinton, the present rector. 

Gracechurch stands half way between St. Paul's and 
Trinity, in the elevated part of the city. Its design is ex- 
tremely chaste; the gothic towers, and outward embellish- 
ments making it a great ornament to that section, which is 
principally the abode of wealth, and comfortable independ- 
ence, though second in its " aristocratic" pretensions to the 
south quarter in which Trinity stands. 

The exterior of Gracechurch is in keeping with its ex- 
ternal appearance. A plain Latin cross occupies the centre 
compartment of the chancel wall. Mr. Clark the pastor of 
this congregation when I lived in Boston, is now the rector 
of St. Andrew's in Philadelphia, where he succeeded his 
namesake, to whose skill in popular oratory he adds chast- 
er, and a more concise and logical style of composition. 

St. Matthew's church. — The parish is situated in the 
south suburb of the city, separated from the old town by an 
arm of the sea, though now incorporated within its muni- 
cipal jurisdiction and called Sojiih Boston. It was or- 
ganized in 181G and the church edifice was completed 1818 ; 
it is a plain brick building with a handsome interior. The 
Rev. Dr. John L. Blake, was the first rector ; lately suc- 
ceeded by the Rev. Joseph H. Clinch. Dr. Blake, now at 
New York, is a scholar of some eminence, and the author 
of numerous elementary and other books used in the com- 
mon schools of the United States. 

Two free churches, erected at the expense of the Church 
Missionary Society, for the use of the poor, and transient 
residents in the opposite quarters of the city where they are 
situated. All the sittings in these churches are free ; the 
clergyman being sustained from the same source. A Sun- 



40 



ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 



day School of six or seven hundred children is supported 
by each, under the superintendence of the churchwardens. 
Dr. Eaton was the minister of the first free church, which 
stands in Franklin avenue, at the time of my residence in 
the city. His place is now supplied by Mr. Wells. Mr. 
Croswell is minister of the other. 

Church of the Messiah. — I give this " church" a place in 
the present list for the sake of completeness. No building 
was erected by the parish when I left Boston ; and I have 
never been able to learn when it was constructed, what site 
it occupies, or what, (if it is in existence) are its architec- 
tural pretensions. The Rev. George M. Randall, an alum- 
nus of the General Theological Seminary and a young 
man of some promise, is tlie rector of the new parish. 

Trinity Church now contains the episcopal chair. The 
present bishop having been elected rector of the same con- 
jointly with his elevation to the mitre. He is assisted in 
the parochial duties by the Rev. John L. Watson. Bishop 
Eastburn is the fourth head of the diocese. His predeces- 
sors are Bishop Bass, consecrated 1797, Bishop Parker, con- 
secrated 1804, and Bishop Griswold, consecrated ISU. 
The Church is rapidly gaining in the preference of the best 
classes in Boston, who have lost their faith in " unitarian- 
ism" since the further defection of several amongst its 
principal ministers, in adopting German Neology. A few 
years will doubtless see a large increase to the Church from 
the ranks, both of Socinia)iism, and Congregationalism. 
The present bishop has been elected on I believe two occa- 
ions to the chaplaincy of the State Legislature — a favour- 
able omen ! He is an Englishman by birth. 



CHAPTER IX. 



BOSTON SECTARIES. 



For several months after I reached Boston, I continued 
a former habit, acquired during a residence in London, of 
frequenting different places of worship in turn ; though an 
acquaintance formed on my first arrival with an estimable 
clergyman of the Roman communion led me oftener into 
church where he officiated than any other. I occasionally 
attended a baptist meeting house in which the distin- 
guished Dr. Sharp preached, and derived much pleasure 
from his clear and happy mode of exposition ; for though 
belonging to the old (i. e. Calvinist) school in tliat denomi- 
nation, I never heard 'him broach the peculiar, and to me, 
offensive dogmas of his party. 

One evening I found myself within the walls of a chapel 
not far from Dr. Sharp's, which had been hitherto unob- 
served by me. The preacher on the occasion was a fervid 
clear-headed reasoner, whose style of address enchained me 
by its ainmdant and very apposite quotations from Holy 
Writ ; and induced a regular attendance for a time on his 
ministrations. He belonged to the " General Baptist" sect, 
commonly called " free-will baptists," from their opposition 
to the Calvinistic tenets of necessity, absolute decrees, rep- 
robation etc. In England, I am informed, this body oc- 
cupy a respectable position amongst the dissenters for their 
zeal and piety, and the learning of their ministers ; excel- 
ling in the latter particular the " Particular" or Calvinistic 



42 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

baptists ; though the case with regard to ministerial attain- 
ments seems to be reversed in the United States. There 
are, however, several preachers in this denomination 
(amongst whom Messrs. Cheney, Phalen and Hiram Brooks 
stand foremost) who had few equals in the American pulpit. 
Mr. H , also, the pastor at this time of the Boston con- 
gregation, was an original thinker and a skilful orator, well 
armed in all the points of doctrinal controversy. 

The standards of this sect on the subjects of the atone- 
ment, justification, freewill, &c. are strictly Armenian ; 
similar to those of a large class in the Anglo and Anglo- 
American Churches ; after which the form of church gov- 
ernment is more nearly framed than that of any other non- 
episcopal body. Three orders of ministers* govern their 
congregations, viz. messengers,t elders,!; and deacons ;§ the 
former of whom exercise a species of episcopal oversight 
over the others ; such as the members assert was assigned 
to the higher grade of ministers in the early Church ; though 
the form of their ecclesiastical government is nominally 
congregational. Simplicity, moral purity, and missionary 
zeal are the characteristics of these excellent unobtrusive 
Christians. No other prefix is applied to their ministers, 
or used by them than the official titles of " elder" or " dea- 
con ;" and their aim is, at least, to conform in every feature 
of their system to apostolic precedent. One instance of 
this exists in the custom of washing each others' feet,|| 
which is practised in some of the congregations. 

There are numerous other sects in Boston, many of 
whose temples form a conspicuous feature among the ar- 

* The threefold ministry is now ahnost confined to the English General Bap- 
tists. See Evans' Sketch, p. 83, and Elder Robinson's " History." 
t Philippians ii. 25. Corinthians viii. 23. 

I 1 Timothy v. 17, 22. Titus i. 5. 

§ Acts vi. 1—6. Philippians i. 1. 1 Tim. iii. 8—12. 

II St. John xiii. 5—14 I Tim. v. 10. 



BOSTON SECTARIES. 43 

chitectural embellishments of the town. The most con- 
siderable in numbers and influence is the " Unitarian," 
though a considerable portion of this sect has since lapsed 
into " transcendentalism," a form of heresy fully exposed 
by several late writers. Happily amidst this confusion of 
tongues the Church is every day gaining strength in the 
New England metropolis. 



CHAPTER X. 

SOME NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FEATURES OF BOSTON. 

A WINTER ill Boston would be very agreeable but for 
the extreme cold ; which during my first winter there fre- 
quently caused a fall in the thermometer of 20 degrees 
below zero. 

It is to strangers a matter of surprise that the climate of 
the United States should differ so materially from the same 
parallel of latitude in the eastern continents. But the 
theory of meteorology as affecting the temperature, in con- 
junction with the proximity of mountains and bodies of 
water, has been long smce satisfactorily explained. I read 
an ingenious treatise on the climate of North America, in 
which the writer aims to establish that it exhibits the 
same specific difference found to exist in similar situations 
in Europe and Asia. However correct the position, it is 
difficult to persuade one's self during the winter season at 
Boston, that you are in the same latitude with Oporto, 
Rome, and Adrianople. 

This deduction from the pleasure of open air exercise 
is greatly counterbalanced by the literary and scientific 
institutions with which the city abounds ; which added to 
the fact that Boston possesses more schools than any other 
place of its size in the world, has doubtless acquired for it 
the title of " the literary emporium" of the wxstern world. 
The Historical Society, the Atheuceum and the Academy 
of Fine Arts, are well endowed substantial establishments, 



RAINSFORD. 45 

as I can testify ; possessing each an extensive library. 
There are other minor societies for the promotion of htera- 
tiue, besides (at the time of which I write) ten dail)^, and 
about thirty weekly newspapers, thirty monthly or semi- 
monthly magazines, etc. ; sixty periodical prints regu- 
larly issued in a city with scarce a hundred thousand in- 
habitants ! 

Boston, to be seen to the greatest advantage, should be 
approached from the sea. — European visitants by the mail 
steamers, will meet with few sights in their whole tour 
through the United States to surpass the spectacle which 
is presented on passing Nantasket. The voyager enters 
a harbour of nearly eight square miles in extent, covered 
with a hundred islands, several of them bristling with for- 
tifications. The eye is filled with the changing scene of 
enchantment, till the Massachusetts metropolis appears in 
sight. The dome of the State House rises higher than any 
other object ; the foundation of the building being more 
than a hundred feet above the level of the water. Around 
the city, which is almost insular, are extensive piers and 
wharves ; and as ships of the largest class can ride securely 
in the harbour, Boston is incomparably better situated for 
commerce than New York. 

Rainsford Island, on which the quarantine hospital 
stands, is six miles from the city. The quarantine system 
of Massachusetts is famed for being one of the most per- 
fect in the w^orld ; and this beautiful island is an evidence 
that the opinion is well founded. There is a resident 
physician at Rainsford from June to September inclusive, 
and a keeper who has oversight of all property landed. 
During the quarantine months vessels are only detained 
long enough for ventilation. The red flag is the signal 
for them to come into the roads for examination. The 



46 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

island is provided with wharves, at which a number of 
vessels can discharge their loads at the same time. 

The hospital is plainly but comfortably furnished, and 
attached to it are warehouses for the convenience of ship- 
masters. The physician's residence is a tastefully built 
cottage, seated on a convenient elevation for overlooking 
the other buildings, and securing an extensive sea-view. 
The keeper's house used as a tavern, and provided with 
a reading-room well supplied with newspapers. There are 
also handsome and commodious edifices, with promenades, 
piazzas, etc., for fever and small-pox patients. In brief, 
Rainsford Island with its comfortable buildings, its gardens, 
orchards, and pleasant walks, possesses as much to recon- 
cile any one to the delay which the quarantine laws may 
render necessary as a wise and benevolent municipal gov- 
ernment could supply. 



CHAPTER XL 

LOWELL. NASHUA.— MERRIMACK. AMHlJRST. GOFFS- 

TOWN.— HOPKINTON. CONTOOCOCKVILLE. 

Towards the close of the summer of 1835 I made a 
tour through parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 
Leaving Boston by the Lowell railroad, the cars achieved 
the distance of twenty miles to the " Manchester of Amer- 
ica" within the hour. The ride presents few, if any ob- 
jects of interest or picturesque beauty. Pine woods, and 
hop fields making up nearly all the view. 

Carrying the above cognomen in my mind I experienced 
no disappointment on reaching Lowell, where all the marks 
of a thriving manufacturing town meet the eye. About 
thirty mills of immense size are in fiUl operation. The 
streets are handsomely built, and at the regular hoiu" for 
meals, when the operatives are dismissed, present an ani- 
mated appearance from the crowds which pour through 
the puljlic thoroughfares, whose neat and comfortable ap- 
pearance certainly contrasts very strongly with the filthy 
and squalid looks of the same class in England. 

Here were about nine thousand work-people regularly 
employed in these mills, two thirds being females, who re- 
ceive, on an average, nineteen shillings weekly ; the wages 
of the other sex averaging at thirty-two shillings. The 
principal articles of manufacture are sheetings, calicoes, 
broadcloths and carpets ; though in several of the mills 
brass, copper and tin wares are produced. The city is 



48 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

situated on the River Merrimack at its junction with the 
Concord. The whole fall of water is thirty feet ; sufficient, 
it is estimated, to carry eight or ten more mills, which a 
few years will probably see erected. 

Meeting some former associates at Lowell, I extended 
my residence much beyond the period I had assigned ; 
and thus had an opportunity, which I improved, of seeing 
its society, and of learning its moral and religious aspect. 
There was a large and influential congregation of episcopa- 
lians, whose church then formed the greatest ornament of 
the city, a good example of English rural church architec- 
ture, with heavy battlemented tower, and a tasteful interior. 
Mr. Edson, the rector of the parish has held it since its first 
establishment. He was indefatigable in his parochial la- 
bours, an excellent preacher, and— a/i efficient Sunday 
School supcrintendant. The Sunday School of St. Ann's, 
which I several times visited, was at this time, and doubt- 
less continues the largest in the diocess. I witnessed the 
first efforts to originate a new parish in another quarter of 
the town where church room was much needed, which has 
since been completed. The parish is named St. Luke's. 

I also accompanied my host several times to the " First 
Congregational" meeting house, in which a Mr. Blanchard 
then preached to the largest congregation in the city. His 
pulpit talents and learning joined to unostentatious piety, 
made him a popular man in the circles of refinement. I 
frequently met him at home and elsewhere ; and am con- 
strained to add that by no one could the universal favour 
and admiration of his fellow citizens be borne with greater 
meekness, or more unaffected diffidence. 

The road from Lowell to Nashua follows the course of 
the Merrimack, and constantly afforded us fine views of 
that beautiful river. The spectacle which the latter town 
presented from an eminence which the coach reached be- 



AMHURST. 49 

fore entering it, was, however, the most picturesque one in 
the ride. It stands on a river of the same name, which 
falls into the Merrimack. Nashua is another manufac- 
turing town. About 1,500 operatives are employed ; popu- 
lation 6000. I spent the rest of the day in a survey of the 
town and its suburbs. 

The next morning I took the stage for Merrimack, cele- 
brated as the place where the first Leghorn bonnets were 
manufactured. I was informed that some of these bonnets 
made by the inventors, Misses Burnaps, have fetched fifty 
dollars in Boston. Finding another conveyance to Amhurst, 
in the afternoon, I reached that place just before dark, and 
was put down at a wide low roofed inn on the side of a 
spacious green, occupying the centre of the town. In the 
morning (Sunday) I entered a huge white meeting house 
standing on the opposite side of the green ; which, like all 
the old New England "meeting houses,"* though rejoicing in 
a tower with its single bell, was both externally and inter- 
nally as unlike an old English church as possible. The 
minister derived importance from occupying throughout the 
service an immense pulpit which occupied the place of the 
altar ; heavy galleries projected from the walls. The ser- 
mon was written, and strongly Calvinistic in its complexion 
—or " orthodox," as the predestinarian creed is commonly 
termed in New Hampshire, where the congregationalists, 
originally forming the established order, though compara- 
tively reduced, are still a numerous body. 

Amhurst is an old town, named before the revolutionary 
war after Lord Jeffrey Amhurst. It has given birth to sev- 
eral eminent men ; among them the Hon. Moses Nichols, 
who served under General Stark in the battle of Bennington. 

* Or " churches" as they are beginning to be called in the cities and towns 
of America, though the term as applied to buildings was repudiated by the con- 
gregationalists till lately. 

4 



50 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

I left it on Monday morning for Goffstown, twelve miles dis- 
tant, at which place I had promised a friend to make a 
short tarry. It is a flourishing village, svurovmded by ex- 
tensive fields of Indian corn, rye, and barley, though I did 
not see an ear of wheat for several days of my ride to- 
gether. On reaching Goffstown I found many of the in- 
habitants attending a "protracted meeting," held by the 
methodists, which had lasted for a fortnight, and which the 
more intelligent of the neighbours thought it high time to 
bring to a close. But the excitement was still at its height, 
and fresh relays of ministers continued to arrive to further 
" the work" which was going on. 

Crossing the Piscataguay ; a romantic river, which 
branches from the Merrimack, a ride of between twenty 
and thirty miles brought us to Hopkinton in the county of 
Merrimack, seven miles from Concord, the capital of the 
state. It is named after Hopkinton in Massachusetts, from 
which place it received its first settlers, just a century ago. 
It was Saturday evening when I reached Hopkinton, and 
the next day I attended the elegant parish church of St. 
Andrew's. The congregation appeared to embrace merely 
the elite of the neighbourhood, and strongly contrasted in 
numbers with the crowd which I met on my way back to 
the hotel, retiring from a large frame meeting house, the 
most conspicuous object in the town. 

In the evening I took my place in a private conveyance 
for the residence of a gentleman who lived on the Contoo- 
cock river, another tributary of the Merrimack. My friend's 
house was in a retired situation, on the outskirts of a pretty 
village named Contoocockville, where a valuable water 
power has caused several mills to be erected. Finding 
him gone to the only place of worship, a baptist meeting 
house, I repaired thither, and was much gratified by the ex- 
ercises, which consisted of several addresses by members of 



BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE. 51 

the society, and an exhortation from the pastor, which for 
simplicity, appositeness and tempered fervor combined, I 
have never heard surpassed. Several hymns were sung 
during the evening ; and at the close, I was introduced to 
the minister, who supped and slept at my host's house. 
The next morning he left on horseback for another station 
which he held jointly with this. I found him in private 
what he had appeared in the public meeting. His English 
Bible was his text book, and his acquaintance with it was 
sufficiently critical to make him on practical points, a safe 
and useful expounder of its sacred contents to the simple 
flock over whom he was chosen. With good general infor- 
mation, he Avas not deficient in scientific research, and ap- 
peared at home on the popular topics of the day. He be- 
longed to a class of preachers, who (however defective the 
ecclesiastical system to which they are attached) are highly 
useful in the moral and religious influence they exert, 
through their pastoral labours, in those regions which the 
supineness or inefficiency of the church would otherwise 
leave a moral desert. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CONCORD. EPSOM. 



The approach to Concord was manifested by the neat- 
ness and substantiahty of the houses on the roadside. On 
reaching the hotel, which proved an excellent one, I took a 
view of the State House, Court House, and State Prison. 
The former is built of hewn granite, surmounted by a gilt 
eagle 120 feet from the grovmd ; erected, I was told, at a 
cost of eighty thousand dollars. The State Prison is of 
the same material, whose abundance in New Hampshire 
has obtained for it the appellation of " the granite State." 
This substantial article gives to many of the churches and 
public buildings in New England the same enduring aspect 
which they present in Scotland. After dinner I accom- 
panied a friend to Sewall's Falls on the Merrimack River 
which flows past the town, where a considerable water 
power keeps several factories in operation. The lands 
round Concord present a high state of cultivation. 

In the evening, hearing several bells ringing, I followed 
the sound of one, and fovmd myself seated in the congre- 
gational meeting house, where the minister, a bilious look- 
ing man, was endeavouring by a pointed address to get up 
his audience to the proper degree of seriousness, the meet- 
ing being a "protracted" one. This was the first time 
that I learnt that congregationalists employed this instru- 
ment, which I had heard condemned by an eminent minis- 
ter of that body at New Bedford ; who in some excellent 



EPSOM. 53 

remarks relating to the onodiis ojiercnidi, and its effects in 
creating converts, exliil^ited the one as of questionable pro- 
priety and the other as only mischievous. 

In the present case, however, the operator seemed a 
novice at his work, for little excitement was visible in the 
congregation. Many of the younger hearers looked about 
with a listless or impatient air ; the preacher was evidently 
throwing away his efforts. 

I spent several days at Epsom, twelve miles to the east 
of Concord, at the hospitable dwelling of a gentleman to 
whom I carried a letter of introduction. His house and 
extensive farm were seated in the midst of a rich grazing 
country. He took me in his chaise on tlie following Sun- 
day to a chapel in the neighbouring village, where we 
found a number of farmers, with their families and labour- 
ers in groups near the building, awaiting the arrival of the 
minister. He shortly appeared on horseback, and was at 
once surrounded l)y his people. There was only an hour's 
recess between the two services, the entire congregation 
remaining until the close of the second. The sermons 
were plain and practical ; though the afternoon's discourse 
would be called controversial by a captious annotator ; 
being partly directed against the Calvinian theory of a 
limited atonement. The preacher proved demonstratively 
that the atonement of Christ was for all ; stating that it 
was necessary to clear this ground before his message of 
invitation to all to accept this atonement. 

The eminently pious Thomas Thomason relates in the 
account which he has given us of his examination before 
the committee of the Elland Fund, by which he was carried 
through college, and prepared for orders, that the points 
which separate Calvinists and Arminians were not even 
pressed by his examiners, though they were Calvinists 



54 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

themselves,* and he had hitherto belonged to the Wesleyan 
Society. 

In reply to the question by Mr. Cecil, whose opinions he 
followed? Mr. Thomason replied, "Indeed, Sir, I have 
never read a book on the subject, except the Bible, in my 
life, I have always made it a point to leave those things, 
as I think it productive of evil to dive into intricacies which 
can never be perfectly cleared." 

" You think very rightly," answered Mr. Cecil, " I have 
acted in the same manner myself I make it a point never 
to handle these things in jJublic." 

The rule might do for England, where the points of 
difference between the national Church and the great 
body of dissenters are chiefly political,! and where hyper- 

* Messrs. Cecil and Foster. 

t Such was, at least, the profession of the more intelligent amongst the dis- 
senters a few years ago; and the sentiment has been familiar to the author 
from the lips of more than one esteemed relative, now deceased, by whom all 
objection to the " estabhshment" except in what related to its political shackles, 
and the secularity, and (too justly charged) indolence and ill-living of its clergy 
was repeatedly and distinctly disclaimed. What then is the writer to think of 
the following statement by an old and revered friend, which has only come un- 
der his eye since the above was penned 1 The Church has since the above pe- 
riod shaken herself from her lethargic condition, and is beginning again to an- 
swer all the purposes of her glorious institution. Her priesthood are as faith- 
ful and vigilant as they were once slothful and careless ; and the professed 
ground of dissent a few years ago is actually removed in the Church's return to 
her " first love," and the performance of her "first works." Yet Mr. Lucas 
thus writes in the close of his excellent "Observations on the Modern Clergy, 
and the Present State of the Church," p. 104. 

"The clergy had long been coalescing with the respectable dissenters, joining 
them in the Bible and other societies ; and among other bonds of amity let me 
notice that once in the year Christians of all denominations had been accus- 
tomed, under excellent regulations, to partake of the Holy Sacrament together, 
according to the service of the church of England, in certain London churches, 
granted for the occasion ; thus proving their Christian unity, and their respect 
for the established worship. And, it is well known how directly as well as in- 
directly the clergy favoured the abrogation of the Acts of which the dissenters 



CALVINIAN HERESY. 55 

Calvinism is confined to the lowest and most uneducated 
of the latter, but in the United States, and especially in 
New England, the case is widely different. The doc- 
complained. I might decidedly instance the public writings called Evangelical, 
which, advocating the cause of dissenters, (aye, in a great degree carried on by 
dissenters,) supported a reform of our Church, not to the stricter exclusion of 
any honourable dissenters, but to their more ready and conscientious admission 
within the pale. They opened their pages for the advocacy of the dissenters' 
claims to the abolition of the test and corporation acts, and to the full and equal 
use of the franchise with themselves. When every thing the dissenters asked 
for had been granted them, and the clergy looked for their co-operation in re- 
turn, to enlarge and strengthen the bond of Christianity to the State, they were 
met by many with decided opposition ; and the most noted dissenting preachers, 
emboldened by recent concession, reckless of every grateful and friendly remem- 
brance, and jealous of one another, came forward, hailed by numbers among 
themselves, and, eagerly joined by every irreligious and unprincipled man in the 
kingdom, they all banded together, and called the unnatural union ' liberality.' 

" Bunyan, a century and a half since, in his inimitable ' Pilgrim's Progress,' 
has described Pope and Pagan as two old giants, with Uicir claws cut, and their 
teeth drawn, sitting helpless and harmless, by the wayside, making mouths at 
the Christian pilgrims, but unable to do them any injury. Had he seen Infi- 
delity, a third giant since his day, roughly handled and deservedly exposed to 
ridicule and scorn, hiding himself and deserted, what would Bunyan have said 
while his friends were lifting up this wretched giant, and worst foe of his faith, 
wrapping a few moral rags about him, and bringing him forward as a fellow 
claimant 1 * * * 

"This is a sad feature now so prominent in dissent, never seen before, but in 
anger against persecution. It is, in truth, a deadly feature, and was not ex- 
pected to be found in such men as Pye Smith, and Jay of Bath, and others 
whom I forbear to name. It has done its mischief, but not In the way expect- 
ed^, it has dishonoured themselves. Has it not been among them ' Tlie Disci- 
pline of the Secret,^ kept for the occasion as much as the Roman Catholic one 1 
Jay, preaching at the tercenary of the Reformation, says — ' The Church of Rome 
was the frog, the Church of England is the tadpole; ' yet, in publiihing the ser- 
mon, this most obnoxious and artful sentiment is omitted. Would he have thus 
spoken to his friends Hannah More, Wilberforce, and others 1 Does he not even 
now try, by the very suppression, to conceal it from the public? But though 
it may shrink from the sight, it has spoken too loud and often to be misunder- 
stood. 

" A national voice of worth and excellence, in Church and State, among the 
very highest and the lowest, of all ages, sex, and conditions, has silenced for 



56 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

trines of the predestinarian school, formerly the only ones 
tolerated in those states, have long since driven thousands 
upon thousands from the meeting-houses of the once 
" standing order," and given birth to all the Socinianism, 
transcendentalism, universalism, and atheism, wiiich is 
now rife in that section of the country. Many, however, 
who are desirous of knowing the truth, and living up to 
the precepts of a pure Christianity, yet for whose appetites 
this strong meat is unsuited, are still under the bondage of 
those delusions with which early pulpit teaching has en- 
thralled their minds ; and coming under the sound of a 
Gospel, not of 7nan, but from God, it is necessary to clear 
the beclouded judgment, and to strengthen the understand- 
ing before applying the word of encouragement ; and this 
the truly " orthodox " ministers do, imitating the skilful 
husbandman who prepares the fallow ground for the good 
seed. 

The next morning, I pursued my way to Dover, passing 
through Northwood, and Barrington, and near several 
lakes not, however, remarkable for picturesque beauty. 
There is, however, a sheet of water, twenty-eight miles 
long, lying some miles to the north of our road, called 
Lake Winnipiseogee, which is justly celebrated, both for 
the beauty of its shores, and the flavour of the fish with 

a while the cry of these infatuated scparaters. No religionist at present ob- 
trudes the unhallowed sentiment; few profess it; many are ashamed of it; and 
the best utterly denounce it. I will exclude none, for my hopes are sanguine 
that there are few who bear a good name that can any longer ' halt between two 
opinions;' for the evil is become apparent; the spurious claim hath, by these 
destructives renouncing all preference for themselves, betrayed itself; and now 
it remains a mark for the Church — she takes it as a test of our common Chris- 
tianity — it is the shibboleth of distinction, by which she proves who is on her 
side, and who against her — and I trust that thk great judge will confirm her 
appeal to him, and will apply the words to her that nis servant, the Judge of 
Israel and Judah, did to the true mother, ' give her the living child, and 

IN NO WISE SLAY IT; SHE IS THE MOTHER THEREOF.' " 



A BEAR STORY. 57 

which it is well stocked. On the north of this inland sea, 
are some dense forests from which the bears, a native of 
New Hampshire, are not yet wholly extirpated. The 
driver of ni)' hired vehicle narrated a story of one of these 
sagacious animals which is too good to be omitted in this 
place, especially as its literal truth was afterwards cor- 
roborated by most respectable testimony, at Dover. The 
narrative was again given to me in nearly the same words 
at Portsmouth. 

'• Some years ago, a cub bear was caught by a stout 
lad, near the borders of Lake Winnipiseogee, carried into 
the town, and after proper drilling became the playfellow 
of the boys of the village, and often accompanied them to 
the schoolhouse. After passing a few months in civilized 
society, he made his escape into the woods, and in a few 
years was almost forgotten. The schoolhouse, meantime, 
had fallen from the schoolmaster's into the schoolmistress's 
hands ; and instead of large boys learning to write and 
cipher, small boys and girls were taught in the same place 
knitting and spelling. One winter's day, after a mild fall 
of snow, the door had been left open by some luchin going 
out, A\'hen, to the unspeakable horror of the spectacled 
dame and her fourscore hopeful scholars, an enormous bear 
walked in, in the most familiar manner in the world, and 
took a seat by the fire. Huddling over the benches as fast 
as they could, the children crowded about their schoolmis- 
tress, who had fled to the farthest corner of the room, and 
there they stood crying and pushing to escape the horror of 
being eaten first. The bear sat snuflftng and warming 
himself by the fire, showing great signs of satisfaction, but 
putting off his meal until he had warmed himself thor- 
oughly. The screams of the children continued ; but the 
schoolhouse was far from any other habitation, and the 
bear did not seem at all embarrassed by the outcry. After 



68 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

sitting and turning himself about for some time, Bruin got 
up on his hind legs, and shoving the door close, began to 
take down, one by one, the hats, bonnets, and satchels, that 
hung on several rows of pegs behind it. His memory had 
not deceived him ; for they contained, as of old, the chil- 
dren's dinners, and he had arrived before the holidays. 
Having satisfied himself with their cheese, bread, pies, 
dough-nuts and apples, Bruin smelt at the mistress's desk ; 
but finding it locked, gave himself a shake of resignation, 
opened the door, and disappeared. The alarm was given, 
and the amiable creature was pursued and killed ; very 
much to the regret of the town's people, when it was dis- 
covered, by some marks in his body, that it was their old 
friend and playfellow." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

DOVER. — PORTSMOUTH. — NEWBURYPORT. — SALEM. 

Dover is famed for its cotton manufactories ; it is seated 
on the Cocheoco River, twelve miles from the ocean, and 
at the head of navigation. A fall of thirty-three feet turns 
30,000 spindles, and about 800 looms, belonging to one 
company, besides those of other manufacturers. After a 
day or two spent in Dover, I proceeded to Portsmouth, the 
largest and oldest town in the state. I was kindly received 
by a worthy family, with Avliom I remained several days. 
Every thing about Portsmouth looked more English-like 
than any other place I had seen since leaving Boston. 
This is, of course, owing chiefly to its age, having been 
settled as early as 1623. The town stands on a peninsula 
extending into the bay, or river mouth, where the entrance 
is guarded by forts. There is a pier about four hundred 
feet long, and a navy yard ; the place being like its English 
namesake, celebrated for its naval architects. 

On Sunday, October 20th, I heard a sermon in one of 
the baptist meeting-houses, from Mr. Mackensie. The 
building was laro^e enough to seat fifteen hundred or two 
thousand persons, though but partially filled ; owing, I was 
informed, to the erection of other places of worship. Mr. 
Mackensie is a fervid, warm-hearted man, a clear, though 
quaint reasoner, and a ready speaker — wholly extempore. 

I left Portsmouth with many regrets that the necessity 
for my return to Boston made it impossible to prolong my 



60 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Stay. After a day's visit to North Hampton, where a rela- 
tive of my Portsmouth host resided, I pursued my course 
by the stage coach to Boston. We stopped to dine at New- 
buryport, where the celebrated preacher Whitfield died, 
after a long career of missionary labours in 1770. The 
following inscription is placed on a handsome monument to 
his memory : — 

THIS CENOTAPH 

IS ERECTED WITH AFFECTIONATE 

VENERATION 

TO THE MEMORY OF THE 

REV. GEORGE WHITFIELD, 

BORN AT GLOUCESTER, ENGLAND, 

DECEMBER 16, 1714, 

EDUCATED AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY, 

ORDAINED A.D. 1736. 

IN A MINISTRY OF THIRTY-FOUR YEARS, 

HE CROSSED THE ATLANTIC THIRTEEN TIMES, 

AND PREACHED MORE 

THAN EIGHTEEN THOUSAND SERMONS. 

AS A SERVANT OF THE CROSS, 

HUMBLE, DEVOUT, ARDENT, 

HE PUT ON THE 
WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD : 

PREFERRING 

THE HONOUR OF CHRIST 

TO HIS OWN INTEREST, REPOSE, 

REPUTATION, AND LIFE 

We had time to take a general survey of this beautiful 
place, in some respects the pleasantest for situation of any 
town through which I passed in this tour. It lies at the 
mouth of the famed Merrimack, which gives it great ad- 
vantage as a trading port. 



SALEM. 61 

At Salem, we were detained about an hour, which I 
employed in taking a turn through the principal streets. 
The houses of several persons were shown me who fell 
victims to the dreadful proscriptions by the puritan minis- 
ters, founded on supposed witchcraft. 

Salem is another English-looking town, or rather city, 
with well built but irregular streets, (no deformity, by the 
way, except to quakerly vision,) and 15,000 inhabitants. 
The bishop of the diocess held at this time the rectorship 
of St. Peter's parish, in connection with his episcopal 
duties, though assisted in his parish by two other clergy- 
men. The episcopal residence, used temporally as such, 
was a commodious mansion of antique appearance. Salem 
was incorporated as a city in the year following. To the 
pious churchman, it was a city some years before, as much 
as Manchester, Liverpool, and Birmingham, are as yet mere 
towns. 

I have, as yet, seen no good reason assigned for the 
departure in the case of several American bishops from 
the early, and till these late American examples, the uni- 
versal custom of bishops holding a parochial charge of their 
own besides the chief pastoral oversight of the diocess. 
The precedent is most dangerous ! The rule of the fifth 
Council of Carthage,* that " Every bishop shall have his 
residence at the principal, or cathedral church, which he 
shall not leave to betake himself to any other chinch in 
his diocess, nor continue upon his private concerns to the 
neglect of his cure, and hindrance of his frequenting the 

* See also the XVIII Canon of the Council of Ancyra, the XIII Canon of 
NeoccEsarea, and the IX of Antioch. The writer is compelled to dissent in his 
view of this matter, from that which seems to be held by the Bishop of Oxford, 
in his History of the American Church, but which is supported by no authori- 
ties. The examples the bishop mentions merely show the need of such a provi- 
sion as the author recommends above, by which ministerial assistance could be 
rendered to the bishop in his own church and parish. 



62 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

cathedral church," has hitherto held good, and governed the 
practice of all bishops in every other part of Christendom. 
The bishop of a diocess should be found the greatest part 
of the year at his own parish. " The city* church," writes 
Bingham, " was to be the chief place of the bishop's resi- 
dence." It is quite doubtful whether frequent visitations 
counterbalance the evil of episcopal non-residence. The 
benefits of episcopal government are not to be estimated by 
the number of episcopal visitations to a parish, or the 
constant presence of the crosier and lawn, but by the sta- 
bility and harmony which the chief pastor gives to the 
ecclesiastical operations of the Church in his office as 
president in the annual council of the clergy and laity, and 
as head of the diocess ; acting as the arbiter in all disputes 
between pastors and their flocks, or between contending 
clergy. A bishop is the representative of the latter, and 
his church " the eye of the diocess." His influence would 
be more than doubly /e// in every section thereof, were his 
regular periodical visits triennial only instead of annual or 
semi-annual. 

If clergymen could only waive their petty jealousies, and 
attend episcopal elections on every occasion thoroughly 
imbued with the spirit of St. John's General Epistle, and 
divested of " that most odious of all hateful corruptions, 
ministerial envifX much time, money, and reputation 

* The original meaning and derivation of the term is understood by few in the 
United States ; being applied only to large corporate towns, with or without a 
resident bishop. When the population reaches twelve thousand, a " city" char- 
ter is granted on the application of the majority of the taxable inhabitants. 
Several cities under old charters have a much smaller population, viz : Burling- 
ton in New Jersey, Newport in Rhode Island, Munroe in Michigan, etc. 
Some populous towns on the other hand with more than the requisite number 
of inhabitants have never yet applied for city privileges, e. g. New Bedford in 
Massachusetts, Hagerstown in Maryland, etc. 

t Rev. J. Sargent. 



SALEM. 63 

might be saved the Church by the election of a resident 
clergyman in every vacant diocess,* respectable for years 
and standing, and rector of a city parish abundantly able 
to support him. Should this be objected to on the ground 
of his supposed bias from parochial influence and ties, 
(a more miaginary evil than any thing else,) the means 
which a dioceas possesses of creating an episcopal fund 
could easily be stretched to make it the permanent endow- 
ment of a cathedral church. This would be desirable, if 
only to dispossess the public mind of the vulgar impression 
that a cathedral is necessarily a building of large propor- 
tions and peculiar construction ; or, what is a more common 
error in protestant communities, that all large churches 
built cruciform are cathedrals ! Out of a multitude of au- 
thorities to the contrary, the Encyclopaedia of the " Society 
for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," will scarcely be 
questioned, which gives the following definition of the word 
— " Certain churches are called cathedrals, or cathedral 
churches. They are so called in consequence of having a 
seat of dignity (cathedra, a Greek term for such a seat) 
appropriated to a bishop or archbishop. Thus, there is the 
cathedral church of Canterbury, the cathedral church of 
Norwich, the cathedral church of Wells. They have usu- 
ally also a dean, and body of canons or prebendaries, but 
this is not essential to constitute a cathedral church, nor is 
every church that has a chapter of canons a cathedral 
church." 

For a bishop " to be the rector of a parish," said the late 
Bishop Griswold, " gives him more the appearance of being 
the head of the family ; it makes his house a better school 
for candidates, and for the younger clergy ; he can the 

* Where such has been the practice, it has been followed by the happiest re- 
sults. Witness the examples of the Eastern Diocess (in the election of its late 
bishop, Griswold !) Connecticut, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, etc. 



64 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

better instruct them in what of all human teaching is 
the most useful — the pastoral care ; and it enlarges his 
means of doing good. Our Church, indeed, supposes that 
the bishop will have such a pastoral care, having in her 
XXX canon made provision for the supplying of his parish 
while absent on his episcopal visitations."* 
The fault, then, is not the Church's ! 

♦ Order and duty of Bishops, p. 17. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. — OBJECT AND CONCEP- 
TION OF THE plot! 

On our way homeward the conversation of the passen- 
gers turned on the witchcraft dehision, of which Salem 
was the scene in 1692. That event was a dark page in 
the history of the New England colonists, and the part that 
the "standing order" of ministers took in the never to he 
forgotten tragedy is important to he preserved in the recol- 
lection of the members of a British community, who are 
perpetually reminded by dissenting politicians of the super- 
stitions and severities which the English clergy are charged 
with encouraging, in the reigns of James and the Charles'. 
A distant land was furnishing throughout the whole period 
of alleged episcopal persecution, including the CromwcUian 
usurpation, scenes of priestly cruelty and crime only equall- 
ed by the atrocities of papal proscription. 

To pass over the dark night of congregational tyranny 
which immediately succeeded the planting of the Plymouth 
colony, when the long desired object of the puritan faction 
was gained, and a Church had been established " after 
their own model."* — To pass over the executions,! the nose 

* They longed for something more than toleration ; they desired to set up 
churches after their own model of perfection, and to watch their growth and 
progress." Wilberforce's History of the American Church, p. 58. 

t " Many quakers in New England were put to death for the profession of 
their faith, until an order from King Charles II. brought this violence to a close." 
lb. — see also Neal's Puritans, vol. 1, p. 334. 

5 



66 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

slittings, the ear shearings, the tongue borings,* the un- 
merciful whippingSjt the fines, iraprisonments.t starvings,§ 
and perpetual banishments|| for conscience sake, which the 
early history of the colony affords, the next page in its 
blood-written annals reveals a scheme, deep and sanguinary, 
which history, with her impartial, because unbiassed, pen 
will put down as devised and executed solely to uphold 
priestly domination — as an assault upon the rights of the 
people, — and a combined and fearfully executed plot to 
perpetuate the thraldom of a superstitious population to 
its spiritual heads. Let us glance at the particulars of 
this plot, and again put on record its principal actors and 
abettors. 

The event which was seized upon as giving warrant to 
the deeds of cruelty which we have to relate affords a fear- 
ful warning to all persons down to the youngest, to abstain 
from the use of deception in any form for the purpose of 
making others the victims either of their amusement, or 
their schemes of interest. 

Cotton Mather, a name that will descend to posterity, 

* Some of the " dissenter?" from the Congregational " platform" were sen- 
tenced, " after the first conviction to lose one ear, after the second another, and 
after the third to have the tongue bored through with a red hot iron." — Wilber- 
force, p. 75. 

t " Convicted anabaptists were fined twenty pounds, and whipped unmerci- 
fully."— lb. p. 74. 

J " Fines, imprisonments and even death itself were amongst their remedies." 
—lb. p. 74. 

§ " No food and lodgings shall be allowed a quaker, Adamite or other heretic," 
—Blue Code, No. 13. 

§ " Two brothers. Church of England men, a lawyer and a merchant, who 
had joined unawares the settlement of Salem, finding how matters stood, ven- 
tured to uphold in their own house, for such as would resort unto them, the 
Common Prayer worship. But such an enormity they were not long suffered 
to continue ; for a disturbance arising amongst the people upon this occasion 
' the brothers were called before the magistrates, and so handled as to be induced 
to leave the colony forthwith,' " Wilberforce p. 73. 



COTTON MATHER. 67 

loaded with the just execrations of every friend of rehgious 
freedom, was foremost amongst his clerical colleagues in his 
opposition to the various forms of "heresy" which had 
crept into the colony of New England ; and which, spite of 
every effort to suppress them, continued to disturb the reign 
of congregational ascendancy. The colonial clergy were 
losing their influence. How was it to be retained ? 

A veracious historian, the successor of one of the prin- 
cipal actors in the drama of the witchcraft persecution, has 
recorded the well-proved, and now generally acknowledged 
fact, that " Dr. Mather contemplated the witchcraft delu- 
sion as the instrument in promoting a 7'evival ofreligioti, and 
boasted of the success with which it was attended as such."* 

Mather was many years minister of the " North Church," 
now standing in Boston,t and a man of great influence in 
the colony. Dr. Coleman, his eulogist, describes him as 
" the most learned man he ever knew, who combined an 
almost incredible amount of vanity and credulity, with a 
high degree of cunning and policy ; an inordinate love of 
temporal power and distinction, with every outward mani- 
festation of piety and christian humility ; and a proneness 
to fanaticism and superstition, with amazing acquisitions 
of knowledge, and a great and remarkable genius." 

In plainer English, the Brownist archbishopt was an ac- 

* The Rev. Charles W. Upham, Pastor of the First Congregational Church 
in Salem, in a volume of " Lectures on Witchcraft"' delivered in 1831, from 
which (an undoubted source) my principal materials are taken. 

t Not Christchurch described in Chap. VI., but an independant meeting 
house, built church-Uke, which has long enjoyed the above appellation ; being 
the corporate name of the society. 

t Robert Brown was the founder of the " independant" [congregational] dis- 
senters, who long bore the name of " Brownists" from him. He is described 
by Neale the dissenting historian, [1-375, 376] as being a " fiery hot headed 
young man; idle and dissolute," in middle life; and in old age, "poor, proud, 
and very passionate." He died in 1630. — Wilberforce's History of the Ameri- 
can church, p. 71. 



68 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

complislied Jesuit ; and had he been member of a better 
devised rehgious system than the impracticable " platform" 
of Congregationalism, he would doubtless, ybr a time have 
effected his pious object, and rivetted faster the fetters of 
spiritual slavery on the New England population. But 
how many whose proper field of action would be in the 
ranks of Ignatius Loyola, have figured prominently under 
the more convenient, because unmeaning and undefined 
standard of " protestant." " Mather aspired" writes the 
same authority before quoted,* " to be considered the great 
champion of the Church, and the most successful combatant 
against the prince of the air. He seems to have longed for 
an opportunity to signalize himself in this particular kind 
of warfare, — seized upon every occurrence that would ad- 
mit of such a colouring to represent it as the result of dia- 
bolical agency, — circulated in his numerous publications as 
many tales of witchcraft as he could collect throughout 
New and Old England, — and repeatedly endeavoured to 
get up a delusion of this kind in Boston. He succeeded to 
some great extent. An instance of witchcraft was brought 
about in that place by his management in 1688. There is 
some ground for suspicion that he was instrumental in 
causing the delusion in Salem ; at any rate he took a lead- 
ing jiart in conducting it. And while there is evidence that 
he endeavoiu'ed, after the delusion subsided, to escape the 
disgrace of having approved of the proceedings, and pre- 
tended to have been in some measure opposed to them, it 
can be too clearly shown that he was secretly and cunningly 
endeavouring to renew them during the next year in his 
own parish in Boston. I know nothing more artful and 
Jesuitical than his attempts to avoid the reproach of having 
been active in carrying on the delusion in Salem, and else- 
where, and at the same time to keep up such a degree of 
* Rev. Mr. Upham. 



CASE OF WITCHCRAFT. 69 

credulity and superstition in the minds of the people as to 
render it easy to plunge them into it again at the first fa- 
vourable moment."* 

The case referred to in this extract was that of a young 
girl, named Godwin, who Avas said to be "bewitched." 
Her talents appear to have been very remarkable ; " She 
had" writes Mr. Upham, "a genius scarcely inferior to 
master Burke himself, there was no part nor passion she 
could not enact." This excellent instrument for the ac- 
complishment of his schemes was taken by Dr. Mather 
mto his family, ostensibly to see "whether he could not ex- 
orcise her."t Here our ingenious actress played off her 
tricks upon the puritan doctor. By his own published ac- 
count — " He once wished to say something in her presence 
to a third person, which he did not intend she should un- 
derstand. He accordingly spoke in Latin ; but she had 
penetration enough to conjecture what he had said ; he 
was amazed ! He then tried Greek ; she was equally suc- 
cessful. He next spoke in Hebrew ; she instantly detected 
the meaning. At last he resorted to the Indian lansfuaffe, 
and that she pretended not to know. The evil being with 
whom she was in compact Avas acquainted familiarly with 
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, but not with the Indian tongue. 
He handed her a book written by a quaker ; she would 
read it off with great ease, rapidity, and pleasure. A book 
written against the quakers she could not read at all. She 
could read popish books but could not decipher a syllable 
of the Assembly's Catechism ! She was very fond of the 
Book of Common Prayer and called it her Bible," &c. &.c. 

So these circumstances, admitting their truth, served to 
convince our puritan doctor of divinity that his little patient 

* Upliam, p. lOG. 

+ Yet the pretended power of exorcising evil spirits was one of the principal 
objections of the nonconformists against the Romish priesthood I 



70 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

was in league with the devil. " She was very fond of the 
Book of Common Prayer." — 'Twere well for Dr. Mather 
had he been equally fond of a book which a more learned 
dissenter* than even Dr. Mather, and one possessing, some 
will think, as due an appreciation of the spiritual in pub- 
lic worship, has since pronounced "the first of uninspired 
compositions." Had Mather been imbued with the spirit 
of that blessed book, instead of the cramped and narrow 
system embodied in the Westminster Confession and the 
Assembly's Catechism, much innocent blood would have 
been spared, and the cause of religion would have escaped 
the dark reproach which it shortly after incurred through 
his agency. — But to proceed with the doctors account, 
which is necessarily condensed. 

To show that the devil stood in great fear of his august 
presence, the puritan saint records that " There stood open 
the study of one belonging to the family, into which enter- 

* The admirable Robert Hall. The opinion of Dr. Clark may also be cited, 
who records of the Anglican Prayer Book that " As a form of devotion it has 
no equal in any part of the universal Church of God." 

" Its great excellences writes Dr. Comben (a presbytcrian) have obtained for 
it a universal reputation in all the world. It is most deservedly adixiired by 
the Eastern Churches, and in great esteem by the most eminent protcstants in 
Europe." 

" It comes" says Grotius, " so near the primitive pattern, that none of tlie 
Reformed Churches can compare with it." 

And the " Religious Intelligencer," the newspaper organ of the Dutch (pres- 
bytcrian) Church of the United States, gives this candid testimony to the instru- 
mentality of the Anglican liturgy in promoting the doctrinal purity of the Eng- 
lish and American Churches : — 

" Her evangelical liturgy and a scrupulous adherence to it has preserved the 
integrity of the Episcopal Church, beyond that of any denomination of Chris- 
tians since the Reformation. It might be so in our Church — and why not V 

[The American branches of the Dutch Reformed, and Lutheran Churches have 
abandoned the public use of their liturgies (though retained in their ordinals) 
in compliance with the practise of surrounding sects. The extract is from an 
article by the editor deploring the same.] 



PURITAN SAINTSHIP. 71 

ing, she stood immediately on her feet, and cried out, 
' They are gone ! They are gone ! They say that they 
can not, — God wont let 'em come here !' adding a reason 
for it which the owner of the study thought more kind than 
true. She would be faint at first (after entering the holy 
and charmed apartment) and say, ' She felt something go 
out of her,' the noises whereof ive sometimes heard like 
those of a mouse. 

" When he called the family to prayers, she would whis- 
tle and sing, and yell to drown his voice, would strike at 
him with her fist and try to kick him. But her hand or 
foot would always recoil when within an inch or two of his 
body ; [thus giving the idea that there was a sort of invisi- 
ble coat of mail, of heavenly temper and proof against the 
assaults of the devil around his sacred person.] After a 
while he concluded to prepare an account of these extraor- 
dinary circumstances wherewithal to entertain his congre- 
gation in a sermon. She seemed to be quite displeased at 
the thought of his making public the doings of her master, 
the evil one, attempted to prevent his writing the intended 
sermon, and disturbed and interrupted him in all manner 
of ways. For instance, she once knocked at his study door 
and said that ' there was somebody down stairs that would 
be glad to see him ;' — he dropped his pen, and went down ; 
upon entering the room he found nobody there but the 
family. The next time he met her he undertook to chide 
her for having told him a falsehood. She denied that she 
had told a falsehood. 'Didn't you say,' said he, 'that there 
was somebody down stairs that would be glad to see me V 
' Well,' she replied, with inimitable pertness, ' is not Mrs. 
Mather always glad to see you ?' 

" She even went much farther than this in persecuting 
him while he was writing his sermon ; she threw large 



72 ECCLESIASTICAL RKMINISC EJSCES. 

books at his head. But he struggled manfully against 
these ' buffetings of Satan ' and finished the sermon."* 

Wonderful man ! to finish a sermon against such fearful 
odds, and despite such Satanic interruption ! Verily this 
modern Dunstan deserves canonization at the hands of his 
sect. By what singular oblivion of memory is it that his 
conflicts and perseverance in resisting the prince of dark- 
ness are unnoticed on the anniversary of his birth ? Have 
his followers forgotten that he once lived ?— or are they de- 
sirous that the world should forget a saint whose feats cer- 
tainly surpass those of the monk of Glastonbury ! Some- 
thing more potent than red hot tongs must have been used 
by the puritan doctor to frighten off the assaults of the 
evil one ; for mark another part of his account. — " Theyt 
would bark like dogs, and then again purr like cats. Yea, 
they would fly like geese, and be carried with an incredible 
swiftness, having but just their toes now and then upon the 
ground, sometimes not once in twenty feet, and their arms 
waved like the wings of a bird." 

This clear case of witchcraft "originated the delusion in 
Salem. It occurred only four years before Dr. Mather's 
account filled the whole country, and it is probable that the 
children in Mr. Parris's family undertook to re-enact it."+ 

The doctor preached his sermon and then published it. 
He did more ; he sent the narrative to Richard Baxter, the 
celebrated non-conformist preacher, who republished it in 
London, with a preface in which he affirms that " he who 

* Upham p. 187. 

t Miss Godwin and her sister who seems to have possessed the same histri- 
onic parts. 

t In passing from the conception of the plot to its terrible birth, I have pre- 
ferred, in this short paragraph, quoting the guarded but unmistakable testimony 
of Mr. Upham, who in his notice of these events, aims to gloze over the part 
which the congregational ministers acted. His honesty, however, compels him 
to admit the facts of the case. 



DR. MATHER, 73 

would not be convinced by all the evidence Dr. Mather 
presented that the child was bewitched, must be a very 
Sadducee."* 

* This gloomy fanatic appears to have taken a Uvely interest in the work of 
suppressing witchcraft in New England. " He kept up," says Mr. Upham, " a 
correspondence with Cotton Mather and with his father Increase Matlier, through 
the medium of which he stimulated and encouraged them in their proceedings 
against supposed witches in Boston and elsewhere." Even Dr. Watts, who 
was doubtless deceived by Mather's fabrications, writes in a letter to that 
honest philanthropist dated Februrary 19th, 17'20. — " I am persuaded that there 
was much immediate agency of the devil in these aflairs, and perhaps there 
were some real witches too." It is possible that the docter conceals under this 
seeming admission a keen rebuke to his cotemporary ; for he expresses in the 
same letter his doubts respecting the sufficiency of the spectral evidence for con- 
demnation. 



CHAPTER XV. 

SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. DEVELOPMENT AND 

EXECUTION OF THE PLOT. 

The public mind having now become prepared for the 
grand act* a pretext for the work of blood was soon af- 
forded in the case of two female children at Salem, the 
daughter and niece of Mr. Parris, a congregational minister 
of the neighborhood. This was in February 1692. Eliza- 
beth Parris was nine years old, and her cousin Abigail 
Williams, was twelve. " They would creep into holes and 
under benches and chairs, put themselves into odd postures, 
make antic gestures, and utter loud outcries, and ridicu- 
lous, incoherent, and unintelligible expressions. The atten- 
tion of the family was arrested. No account or explana- 
tion of the conduct of the children could be given, and in 
an evil hour physicians were called in and consulted. One 
of the physicians gave it as his opinion that the children 
were bewitched."! 

Before continuing Mr. Upham's narrative, the reader is 
particularly requested to note the circumstances which pre- 
ceded this symptom of the presence of witchcraft ; which 
circumstances shall be given in Mr. Upham's own lan- 
guage. 

* " Baxter wrote his work entitled " The certainty of the world of spirits," 
for the special purpose of confirming and diffusing the belief The writings of 
Dr. More, of Baxter, and Glaudil had been circulating for a long time in every 
direction in New England, before the trials began in Salem." — Upham, p. 216. 

t Upham, p. 17. 



SALEM AVITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 75 

"The population of what is now Salem was at that 
time, and continued for nearly thirty years afterwards, to 
be so small that there was but one religious society in the 
place. All the people were accommodated in the meeting 
house of the First Church. A separate religious society 
had previously been formed in what was then called Salem 
village, now Danvers. This congregation (the same at 
present under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Braman, 
lately under that of the estimable Dr. Wadsworth) had for 
a long period been the scene of one of those violent and 
heated dissensions too common in our [voluntary] religious 
societies at all times. The unhappy strife was gradually 
propagated, until it had spread alienation and bitterness 
through the whole town, and finally became of such mo- 
ment that it was carried up to the General Court, and was 
a topic of discussion and altercation there. The parties 
were the Rev. Samuel Parris on one side, and a large por- 
tion of his congregation on the other." 

Keeping these events in mind, let us then follow the nar- 
rative in the words of the same writer : — 

" One or two other young girls in the neighborhood soon 
began to exhibit similar indications of Ijeing bewitched. 
The families to which the afflicted children belonged im- 
mediately applied themselves to fasting and prayer ; invo- 
king the interposition of the Divine Being to deliver them 
from the snares and dominion of Satan. Mr. Parris in- 
vited the neighboring ministers to assemble at his house, 
and unite with him in devoting a day to solemn religious 
services, and to devout supplications to the throne of mercy 
for rescue from the power of the great enemy of souls. 
During the exercises of this occasion one of the children 
had frequent and violent convulsive fits. These events 
soon became generally known in the village, and through 
the whole surrounding country. The public mind was pre- 



76 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

pared to sanction the opinion of the physician, and it was 
universally believed that the evil one had commenced his 
operations with a bolder front, and on a broader scale than 
in any previous period. 

"Great numbers crowded to the spot to gratify their 
credulous curiosity by witnessing the effect of his influence 
upon the afflicted children ; and all were anxious to dis- 
cover by Avhose co-operation he thus exercised his malig- 
nant power. The pretended sufferers were incessantly im- 
portuned to declare who afflicted them ? Who were the 
witches through whom the evil one acted upon them ? — 
At length when they had wrought the people up to a suf- 
licient degree of excitement, they began to select and bring 
forward their victims. They first accused, or as the phrase 
was ' cried out upon' an Indian woman attached to Mr. 
Parris's family. By operating upon the old creature's fears 
and imagination, and, as there is some reason to apprehend, 
by using severe treatment towards her, she was made to 
confess that the charge tvas true, and that she was in 
league with the devil. 

" All can easily imagine the effect of this confession. 
It established beyond question or suspicion, tlie credibility 
of the accusers, and produced such a thorough conviction 
of their veracity in the public mind, that if any one still 
continued to have misgivings or doubts it seemed to be all 
in vain, even if he had courage enough to dare to do it, to 
give them utterance. This state of things emboldened the 
young girls, and they proceeded to accuse two more de- 
crepid and miserable old women, who were immediately 
arrested, thrown into prison, and put in irons. In the 
meantime new accessions were made to the number of the 
afflicted accusers, owing either to the inflamed state of the 
imaginations of the people, which led them to attribute 
their various diseases and ailments to the agency of witches, 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 77 

to a mere love of notoriety and a passion for general sym- 
pathy, to a desire to be secure against the charge of be- 
witching others, or to a malicious disposition to wreak ven- 
geance upon enemies. 

" The next person accused was carried into the meeting 
house in the village, and confronted with the accusers. 
As soon as the poor old woman was brought in, they utter- 
ed loud screams, and fell down upon the floor. If in her 
terror and despair she happened to clasp her hands, they 
would shriek out that she was pinching them. When she 
pressed in agony her withered lip, they exclaimed that she 
was l^iting them, and would show the marks of her teeth 
upon their flesh. If the dreadful excitement of the scene, 
added to the feebleness of age, exhausted and overcame 
her, and she happened to lean for support against the side 
of the pew or the aisle, they would cry out that their bodies 
were crushed ; and if she changed her position, or took a 
single step, they would declare that their feet were in pain. 
In this manner they artfully produced a strong conviction 
in the minds of the deluded magistrates, and excited by- 
standers. On these occasions the proceedings were always 
introduced by prayer and addresses from the most influen- 
tial ministers in the vicinity, who were decided in counte- 
nancing, and active in promoting them. The afflicted, as 
they were called, did not rest with merely accusing their 
victims of having bewitched them, but testified on the stand 
that they had been present with them at their diabolical 
meetings, had witnessed them partaking in the visible 
company of Satan, of his blasphemous sacraments, and 
had seen them sign his book with their own blood. 

" The examination of the accused generally took place, 
as has always been understood, in the house still stand- 
ing at the western corner of North and Essex streets, 
then the residence of Jonathan Corwin, Esq., at that time 



78 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

an acting magistrate. His colleague in the magistracy 
was John Hathorne, Esq. 

" While the delusion was spreading over the colony, 
its operations were going on with tremendous efficacy in 
Salenij and the neighboring towns ; additions were con- 
tinually making to the number of the accusers by volun- 
tary accessions, and by those, who, having been themselves 
accused, to save their lives confessed and became witnesses 
against others. The prisons in Salem, Cambridge and 
Boston, were crowded with supposed witches. All the 
securities of society were dissolved. Every man's life was 
at the mercy of every other man. Fear sat on every 
countenance, terror and distress were in all hearts ; silence 
pervaded the streets ; many of the people left the country ; 
all business was at a stand ; and the feeling, dismal and 
horrible indeed, became general that the jjrovidence of 
God ivas removed front them, and that they lo ere given 
over to the dominion of Satan. 

" To meet the extraordinary crisis, a special commission 
was issued to seven of the principal citizens and jurists 
of the colony, constituting them a court to try accused 
persons at Salem. These were the Lieutenant Governor 
Mr. Stoughton, Major Suttonstall, Major Richards, Major 
Gidney, Mr. Wait Winthrop, Capt. Sewall, and Mr. Sar- 
geant. They assembled by particular appointment at the 
court house in Salem (supposed to have stood at the eastern 
corner of Essex and Washington streets) on the second 
of June, 1692. The first victim, an old woman, was exe- 
cuted on the tenth of June, the court then adjourned. 
The government during their recess consulted several of 
the (congregational) ministers of Boston and its vicinity 
respecting the prosecutions, who, while they urged the 
importance of caution and circumspection in the methods 
of examination and the admission of testimony, at the 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 79 

same time decidedly and earnestly recommended that the 
proceedings should be ' vigorously carried on.' And ihey 
were vigorously carried on ! — The court sat again on the 
thirtieth of June, and five more old women were hanged 
on the nineteenth of July. The court sat again August 
the fifth, and on the nineteenth of the same month four 
men and one Vvoman were hanged. And on the twenty- 
second of September two men and six women were 
hanged. Eight more were condemned, but this was the 
last execution. One man refusing to put himself on trial 
was pressed to death, agreeably to the provisions of the 
English laws. 

" The principal immediate effect of these summary and 
sanguinary proceedings was to render the accusers more 
bold, confident, and daring ; they began to feel that the 
lives of all the people Avere in their hands, and seemed 
at last to have experienced a fiend-like satisfaction in 
the thought of bringing infamy and death upon the best 
and most honoured citizens of the colony. They repeat- 
edly " cried out " upon the Rev. Mr. Willard, the author 
of the " Body of Divinity," one of the most revered and 
beloved ministers of the times. They accused a member 
of the immediate family of Dr. Increase Mather, who 
had recently returned from a special embassy to the 
English court respecting the charter, and was then the 
president of Harvard College — the man whom Elliott 
calls ' the father of the New England clergy,' and whose 
name and character have been held in veneration by his 
contemporaries, and all succeeding generations. A writer 
of that period intimates that they accused the wife of the 
governor, Sir William Phipps ; they even went so far, it is 
said, as to implicate one of the judges of the court. 

" But that which finally overthrew their power, and broke 
the spell by which they had held the minds of the whole 



80 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

coVony in bondage, was their accusation of Mrs. Hale, the 
wife of the minister of the first church in Beverly. Her 
genuine and distinguished virtues, had won for her a repu- 
tation, and secured in the hearts of the people a confidence, 
which superstition itself could not sully nor shake. Mr. 
Hale had been active in all the previous proceedings ; but 
he knew the innocence and piety of his wife, and he stood 
forth between her and the storm he had helped to raise. 
Although he had driven it on while others were its victims, 
he turned and resisted it when it burst in upon his own 
dwelling. In crying out upon Mrs. Hale, the whole com- 
munity was convinced that the accusers had perjured them- 
selves, and from that moment their power was destroyed ; 
the awful delusion ceased ; the curtain fell ; and a close 
was put to one of the most tremendous tragedies in the his- 
tory of real life. The wildest storm, perhaps, that ever 
raged in the moral world instantly became a calm ; the 
tide that had threatened to overwhelm every thing in its 
fury, sunk back in a moment to its peaceful bed. There 
are few, if any other instances, in history of a revolution 
of opinion and feeling so sudden, so rapid, and so complete. 
The images and visions that had possessed the bewildered 
imaginations of the people flitted away, and left them stand- 
ing in the clear sunshine of reason and their senses ; and they 
could have exclaimed as they witnessed them passing off 
in the language of the great master of the drama, and of 
human nature — but that their rigid puritan principles would 
not, it is presumed, have permitted them, even in that mo- 
ment of rescue and deliverence, to quote Shakespeare : — 

' See ! they're gone — 
The earth has bubbles as the waters have, 
And these are some of them ! they vanished 
Into the air, and what seemed corporal 
Melted as breath into the wind.' 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 81 

" During the prevalence of this fanaticism, twenty per- 
sons lost their lives by the hand of the executioner, fifty- 
five escaped death by confessing themselves guilty, one 
hundred and fifty were in prison, and more than two hun- 
dred others accused. 

" One adventurous and noble spirited young man found 
means to effect his mother's escape from confinement, fled 
with her on horseback from the vicinity of the jail, and se- 
creted her in the Blueberry Swamp, not far from Tapley's 
brook in the Great Pasture ; he protected her concealment 
there until after the delusion had passed away, provided 
food and clothing for her, erected a wigwam for her shelter, 
and surrounded her with every comfort her situation would 
admit of. The poor creature must, however, have endured 
a great amount of suffering, for one of her larger limbs was 
fractured in the all but desperate enterprise of rescuing her 
from the prison. Immediately upon the termination of the 
excitement all who were in prison were pardoned. Nothing 
more was heard of the afl[licted or the confessors ; they 
were never called to account for their malicious imposture 
and perjury. It was apprehended that a judicial investiga- 
tion might renew the excitement and delusion, and all 
were anxious to consign the whole subject as speedily and 
effectually as possible to oblivion."* 

* Upham, p. 20. etc. 

6 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION.— DISCOVERY AND EXPO- 
SURE OP THE PRINCIPAL CONSPIRATORS. FRUITS OF 

FAITH. 

Much as fanaticism, and puritanical teaching accom- 
plish, when its sway is absolute, in subduing the human 
intellect, and benumbing the moral perceptions, yet there 
was sufficient intelligence and enlightenment left in the 
community to produce an early reaction of public feeling. 
The triumph of Mather and his colleagues was short 
lived ! — one of the first events that opened the eyes of a 
large number as to the motives which were secondary in 
the direful transactions, was a "church council" convened 
at Salem, to compose the difficulties existing between Mr. 
Parris and his congregation, " It is evident" writes Mr. 
Upham (Mr. Noyes's successor be it remembered) " from 
the documents connected with the proceedings of these 
councils, that the disaffected members of his society re- 
garded his conduct in the preceding tragedy with an aver- 
sion and horror that can only be accounted for on the hy- 
pothesis, that they suspected him of having acted, not 
merely under the influence of an indiscreet enthusiasm, but 
from dishonest and malignant motives. This suspicion 
was very much confirmed by the circumstance that the old 
Indian woman, who by declaring herself guilty of the 
charge of witchcraft, first gave credit and power to the ac- 
cusers always asserted that she was whipped by Mr. Parris 
until she consented to make a confession. But however it 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 83 

may have been with him — and in the absence of conclu- 
sive testimony, we must leave his guilt or innocence to the 
decisions of a higher tribunal — so strong and deeply rooted 
were the feelings of disapprobation and aversion towards 
him which occupied the breasts of his disaffected parish- 
ioners, that all attempts on the part of the other churches 
to produce a reconciliation, and even his own humble and 
solemn acknowledgment of his error, were unavailing, and 
he was compelled to resign his situation, and remove from 
the place."* 

Mr. Burroughs, the victim of a local conspiracy, had 
officiated as a candidate for the pastoral charge at Salem, 
and possessing acceptable talents had received an invita- 
tion to settle there, which brought him into collision with 
several of the inhabitants. The following is the recanta- 
tion of a young woman whose testimony had been used by 
his enemies. She had also been prevailed upon to testify 
against her own grandfather. Both were condemned and 
executed upon her evidence. 

" The humble declaration of Margaret Jacobs unto the 
honoured Court now sitting at Salem, sheweth. — That 
whereas your poor and humble declarant, being closely 
confined here in Salem gaol for the crime of witchcraft ; 
which crime, thanks be to the Lord, I am altogether igno- 
rant of, as will appear at the great day of Judgment. 
May it please the honoured court, I was cried out upon by 
some of the possessed persons as afflicting them ; where- 
upon I was brought to my examination, which persons at 
the sight of me fell down, which did very much startle and 
affright me. The Lord above knows I knew nothing in 
the least measure, how or who afflicted them ; they told 
me without doubt I did, or else they would not fall down 
at me ; they told me if I would not confess I should be put 
* Upham's Lectures, pp. 56-7. 



84 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES, 

down into the dungeon and would be hanged ; but if I 
would confess I should have my life ; the which did so af- 
fright me, with my own vile wicked heart, to save my life, 
made me make the like confession I did ; which confession, 
may it please the honoured court, is altogether false and 
untrue. The very first night after I made my confession 
I was in such horror of conscience I could not sleep for fear 
the devil should carry me away for telling such horrible 
lies. I was, may it please the honoured court, sworn to 
my confession as I understand since, but then at that time 
was ignorant of it, not knowing what an oath did mean. 
The Lord I hope, in whom I trust, out of the abundance 
of his mercy will forgive me my false forswearing myself. 
What I said was altogether false against my grandfather 
and Mr, Burroughs, which I did to save my life and to 
have my liberty ; but the Lord, charging it to my con- 
science, made me in so much horror that I could not con- 
tain myself before I had denied my confession, which I 
did, though I saw nothing but death before me, choosing 
rather death with a quiet conscience than to live in such 
horror which I could not suffer. When upon denying my 
confession, I was committed to close prison, where I have 
enjoyed more felicity in spirit a thousand times than I did 
in my enlargement. And now may it please your honours, 
your declarant having in part given your honours a de- 
scription of my condition, do leave it to your honours' pi- 
ous and jvidicious discretions to take pity and compassion 
on my young and tender years ; to act and do with me as 
the Lord above and your honours shall see good, having 
no friend but the Lord to plead my cause for me ; not be- 
ing guilty in the least measure of the crime of witchcraft, 
nor any other sin that deserves death from man ; and your 
poor and humble declarant shall forever pray as she is 
bound in duty for your honours' happiness in this life, and 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 85 

eternal felicity in the world to come — so prays your hon- 
ours' declarant. 

Margaret Jacobs," 

The poor wretch wrote the following letter to her father 
after her grandfather's execution, 

" From the dungeon in Salem prison. 
" August 20th, 1692. 
"Honoured Father — After my humble duty remembered 
to you hoping of the Lord in your good health, as blessed 
be God I enjoy, though in abundance of affliction being 
close confined here in a loathsome dungeon ; the Lord look 
down in mercy upon me, not knowing how soon I may be 
put to death by means of the afflicted persons ; my grand- 
father having suffered already and all his estate seized for 
the king. The reason of my confinement is this : — I hav- 
ing through the magistrates' threatnings and my own vile 
and wretched heart, confessed several things contrary to 
my conscience and knowledge, though to the wounding of 
my own soul (the Lord pardon me for it ;) but oh the ter- 
rors of a wounded conscience who can bear ? But blessed 
be the Lord, he would not let me go on in my sins, but in 
mercy, I hope, to my soul would not suffer me to keep it 
any longer, but I was forced to confess the truth of all be- 
fore the magistrates who would not believe me ; but it ia 
their pleasure to put me in here, and God knows how soon 
I shall be put to death. Dear father, let me beg your 
prayers to the Lord on my behalf, and send us a joyful 
and happy meeting in heaven. My mother, poor woman, 
is very crazy, and remembers her kind love to you, and to 
uncle, viz. D. A. So leaving you to the protection of the 
Lord, I rest your dutiful daughter, 

" Margaret Jacobs." 



86 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

The fate of Mr. Burroughs sent a thrill of horror through 
the whole community, which it required all the art and 
sophistry of the board of ministers to calm. He was a 
highly educated man, had received the honours of Har- 
ward University in 1670, of a spotless life, and no charge 
of inconsistency as a minister of the gospel had ever been 
attempted to be brought against him. On the day before 
his execution the unfortunate Margaret Jacobs obtained 
permission to visit him, when she made a full acknowledge- 
ment of her perjury and prayed his forgiveness. This he 
freely gave her, and spent some time in prayer with her. 
When the hour arrived for his execution, " he was carried 
in a cart with other convicts from the jail, which is sup- 
posed to have stood on the the northern corner of County 
and St. Peter's streets, the procession probably passing 
down St. Peter's into Essex street, and thence onward to 
the rocky elevation called ' Gallows hill,' about an eighth 
of a mile towards Danvers, beyond the head of Federal 
street, where the executions took place. 'While Mr. Bur- 
roughs was on the ladder,' a contemporary writer observes, 
* he made a speech for the clearing of his innocency with 
such solemn and serious expressions as were to the admira- 
tion of all present ; his prayer was so well worded, and 
uttered with such composedness, and such fervency of 
spirit as was very affecting, and drew tears from many, so 
that it seemed to some that the spectators would hinder the 
execution.' To meet and turn back this state of feeling, 
the accusers cried out that they saw the evil being standing 
behind him in the shape of a black man, and dictating 
every word he uttered. And the [in]famous Cotton Mather 
rode round in the crowd on horseback, haranguing the 
people and saying that it was not to be wondered at 
that Mr. Burroughs appeared so well, for that the devil 
often transformed himself into an angel of lidit. This 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 87 

artful declaration, together with the outcries and assertions 
of the accusers, had the intended eflfect upon the fanatical 
multitude. When the body was cut down, it was dragged 
by the rope to a hollow place excavated between the rocks, 
stripped of its garments and then covered with clothes that 
had belonged to some poor wretch previously executed, 
thrown with two others into the hole, trampled down by the 
mob, and finally left uncovered."* 

The case of Rebecca Nurse affords a glaring instance of 
judicial oppression, unsurpassed by any of the acts of Judge 
Jeffries. The jury having heard no evidence worthy of the 
name, returned a verdict of "not guilty." Immediately 
upon hearing it the malignant and fiendlike accusers ut- 
tered a loud outcry in open court ! The judges were over- 
come by the general clamour, and intimidated from the 
faithful discharge of their sacred duty. They expressed 
their dissatisfaction with the verdict. One of the judges 
declared his disapprobation with great vehemence, another 
said she should be indicted anew, and the Chief Justice in- 
timated to the jury that they had overlooked one important 
piece of evidence. It was this ;— during the trial a woman 
named Hobbs who had confessed herself a witch was 
brought into court, and as she entered the prisoner turned 
towards her and said, 'What! do you bring her? she is 
one of us.' The jury were thus prevailed upon to go out 
again ; they soon returned, pronouncing the poor old wo- 
man ' Guilty.' After her conviction she addressed the fol- 
lowing note to the judges. 

' These presents do humbly show to the honoured court 
and jury that I being informed that the jury brought me in 
guilty upon my saying that goodwife Hobbs and her daugh- 
ter were of our -company, but I intended no otherways, 
than as they were prisoners with us and therefore did then 
* Upham, p. 102. 



88 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

and yet do judge them not legal evidence against their fel- 
low prisoners. And I being something hard of hearing and 
full of grief, none informing me how the court took up my 
words, and therefore had no opportunity to declare what I 
intended when I said they were of our company, 

'Rebecca Nurse." 

The governor, it appears, wished to grant her a reprieve, 
but on discovering his intention the accusers renewed their 
outcries against her, and on the earnest persuasion of his 
clerical and lay advisers, gave orders for her execution, 
which took place within a few weeks after her conviction. 

The case of Giles Cory was also an aggravated example 
of cruelty. He was a communicant of the " First [congre- 
gational] Church" in Danvers and probably one of Mr. Bur- 
roughs' supporters. When he saw that trial was a mere 
mockery, he indignantly refused to plead to the indictment, 
nor could the threat of the torture change his resolution. 
He was accordingly conveyed to the press, under the ag- 
ony of which he expired. His executioners showed a re- 
finement of cruelty during the moments of his suffering. 
The New England historian records that "as his aged 
frame yielded to the dreadful pressure his tongue was pro- 
truded from his mouth. The demon who presided over 
the torture drove it back again with the point of his cane," 
and adds with an earnestness which does him honour, — 
" The heart of man once turned to cruelty seems, like the 
fleshed tiger, to gather new fury in the mere exercise of 
ferocity."* 

The following touching narrative left by " a respectable 
citizen of Charlestown " near Boston, will afford a view 
of the common methods of examination ; though in many 

* Upham, p. 88. 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 89 

cases a simple accusation from a " possessed " person was 
sufficient to procure a verdict of guilty. 

''May 2ith, 1693. 

" I having heard some days that my wife was accused 
of witchcraft, being much disturbed at it, by advice 
went to Salem village to see if the afflicted knew her. 
We arrived there on the 24th of May ; it happened to be 
a day appointed for examination. Accordingly, soon after 
our arrival, Mr. Hatham, Mr. Curwin, etc., went to the 
meeting house, which was the place appointed for that 
work. The minister began with prayer, and having taken 
care to get a convenient place, I observed that the afflicted 
were two girls of about ten years old, and two or three 
others of about eighteen ; one of the girls talked most, 
and could discern more than the rest. 

" The prisoners were called in one by one, and as they 
came in were cried out at. The prisoners were placed 
about seven or eight feet from the justices and the accusers 
between the justices and them ; the prisoners were ordered 
to stand right before the justices, with an officer appointed 
to hold each hand lest they should therewith afflict them ; 
and the prisoners' eyes must be constantly on the justices ; 
for if they looked on the afflicted they would either fall into 
fits or cry out of being hurt by them. After an examination 
of the prisoners, who it was afflicted these girls, etc., they 
were put upon saying the Lord's Prayer as a trial of their 
guilt. After the afflicted seemed to be out of their fits, 
they would look steadfastly on some one person, and fre- 
quently not speak ; and then the justices said they were 
struck dumb, and after a little time would speak again : 
then the justices said to the accusers, 'Which of you will 
go and touch the prisoner at the bar?' Then the most 
courageous would adventure, but before they had made 



90 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

three steps would ordinarily fall down as in a fit ; the 
justices ordered that they should be taken up and carried 
to the prisoner, that she might touch them, and as soon as 
they were touched by the accused, the justice wovdd say, 
" They are well," — before 1 could discern any alteration, 
by which I observed that the justices understood the manner 
of it. Thus far I was only as a spectator ; my wife also was 
there part of the time, but no notice was taken of her by 
the afflicted, except once or twice they came to her and 
asked her name. But I having an opportunity to discourse 
Mr. Hale (with whom I had formerly acquaintance) I took 
his advice what I had best do, and desired of him that 
I might have an opportunity to speak with her that accused 
my wife ; which he promised should be, I acquainting him 
that I reposed my trust in him. Accordingly he came to 
me after the examination was over, and told me I had now 
an opportunity to speak with the said accuser, Abigail 
Williams, a girl eleven or twelve years old ; but that we 
could not be in private at Mr. Parris's house, as he had 
promised me ; we went therefore into the alehouse, where 
an Indian man attended us, who it seems was one of the 
afflicted ; to him we gave some cider ; he showed several 
scars that seemed as if they had been long there, and 
showed them as done by witchcraft, and acquainted us that 
his wife, who also was a slave, was imprisoned for witch- 
craft. And now instead of one accuser they all came in, 
and began to tumble down like swine ; and then three 
women were called in to attend them. We in the room 
were all at a stand to see who they would cry out of ; but 
in a short time they cried out ' Gary,' — and immediately 
after a warrant was sent from the justices to bring my wife 
before them, who were sitting in a chamber near by wait- 
ing for this. Being brought before the justices her chief 
accusers were two girls. My wife declared to the justices, 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 91 

that she never had any knowledge of them before that day. 
She was forced to stand with her arms stretched out. I 
requested that I might hold one of her hands, but it was 
denied me ; then she desired me to wipe the tears from her 
eyes, and the sweat from her face, which I did ; then she 
desired she might lean herself on me, saying she should 
faint. Justice Hathorn replied she had strength enough to 
torment these persons, and she should have strength 
enough to stand. I speaking something against their 
cruel proceedings, they commanded me to be silent, or 
else I should be turned out of the room. 

The Indian before-mentioned was also brought in to be 
one of her accusers ; being come in, he now (when before 
the justices) fell down and tumbled about like a hog, but 
said nothing. The justices asked the girls who afflicted 
the Indian ; they answered ' she,' (meaning my wife) and 
that she now lay upon him ; the justices ordered her to 
touch him in order to his cure, but her head must be turn- 
ed another way, lest instead of curing she should make 
him worse by her looking on him, her hand being guided to 
take hold of his ; but the Indian took hold of her hand 
and pulled her down on the floor in a barbarous manner ; 
then his hand was taken off, and her hand put on his hand 
the cure was quickly wrought. I being extremely troubled 
at their inhuman dealings uttered a hasty speech " that 
God would take vengeance on them, and desired that God 
would deliver us out of the hands of unmerciful men." 
Then her mittimus was writ. I did with difficulty and 
charge obtain the liberty of a room but no beds in it ; if 
there had been could have taken but little rest that night. 
She was committed to Boston prison ; but I obtained a 
habeas corpus to remove her to Cambridge prison, which is 
in our county of Middlesex. Having been there one night, 
next morning the jailer put irons on her legs (having re- 



92 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES- 

ceived such a command) the weight of them was about 
eight pounds ; these irons and her other afflictions soon 
brought her into convulsion fits, so that I thought she 
would have died that night. I sent to intreat that the irons 
might be taken off; but all entreaties were in vain if it 
would have saved her life, so that in this condition she 
must continue. The trials at Salem coming on, I went thi- 
ther, to see how things were managed ; and finding that 
the spectre evidence was there received, together with idle, 
if not malicious stories against people's lives, I did easily 
perceive which way the rest would go ; for the same evi- 
dence that served for one would serve for all the rest. I ac- 
quainted her with her danger ; and that if she were car- 
ried to Salem to be tried, I feared she would never return. 
I did my utmost that she might have her trial in her own 
county. I with several others petitioning the judge for it, 
and were put in hopes of it, but I soon saw so much that I 
understood thereby it was not intended, which put me upon 
consulting the means of her escape ; which through the 
goodness of God was effected, and she got to Rhode Island, 
but soon found herself not safe when there, by reason of 
the pursuit after her ; from thence she went to New York 
along with some others that had escaped their cruel hands, 
where we found his excellency Benjamin Fletcher, Esq., 
governor, who was very courteous to us. After this some 
of my goods were seized in a friend's hands with whom I 
had left them, and myself imprisoned by the sheriff" and 
kept in custody half a day, and then dismissed ; but to 
speak of their usage of the prisoners and the inhumanity 
shown to them at the time of their execution no sober 
Christian could bear ! They had also ' trials of cruel 
mockings,' which is the more heinous considering what a 
people for religion— I mean the profession of it — we have 
been ; those that suffered being many of them church 



SALEM WITCHCRAFT DELUSION. 93 

members, and most of them unspotted in their conversa- 
tion, till their adversary the devil took up this method for 
accusing them. 

Jonathan Gary.' 

" Every idle rumour," writes Mr. Upham, " every thing 
that the gossip of the credulous, or the fertile memories of 
the malignant could produce, that had an unfavourable 
bearing upon the prisoner, however foreign it might be 
from the indictment, was allowed to be brought in evidence 
before the jury, A child between five and six years of age 
was arrested and put into prison. Children were encour- 
aged to become witnesses against their parents, and parents 
against their children. 

It was the worst feature in these transactions, that they 
were first instigated, and then vigorously prosecuted by the 
clergy. Such is the testimony of the most prejudiced na- 
tive historians. " They took the lead in the whole trans- 
action," writes Mr. Upham. " As the supposed agents of 
all the mischief belonged to the supernatural or spiritual 
world, which has ever been considered their peculiar pro- 
vince, it was thought that the assistance and co-operation 
of ministers were particularly appropriate and necessary. 
It has been mentioned that the government consulted 
the ministers of Boston and the vicinity, after the execu- 
tion of the first person convicted, and previous to the trial 
of the others, and that they returned a positive and ear- 
nest recommendation to ' proceed in the good work.' "* 

♦ Upham, p. 89. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE SALEM DELUSION. NOYES AND MATHER. 

One Noyes figured conspicuously through the scenes 
of the tragedy, and won an execrable repute for his furious 
Bonner like oppression of the wretched martyrs to puritani- 
cal rage. This butcher was the "junior pastor" of the 
" First (congregational) Church" in Salem. Rebecca Nurse, 
whose conviction was obtained by the bullying and threats 
of the judges, instigated by Noyes and his clerical col- 
leagues, was a member of the "first church." "On the 
communion day that intervened between her conviction 
and execution he procured a vote of excommunication to 
be passed against her. In the afternoon of the same day, 
the poor old woman was carried to the great and spacious 
meeting house in chains, and there in the presence of a 
vast assembly Mr. Noyes proclaimed her expulsion from 
the Church, pronounced the sentence of eternal death upon 
her, formally delivered her over to Satan, and consigned 
her to the llames of hell ! It is related however, that as 
soon as the fanaticism had disappeared, the recollection of 
her excellent character, and virtuous and pious life effaced 
the reproach of the spiritual as well as the temporal sen- 
tence."* 

Mr. Upham's further notice of the infamous part taken 
by the inquisitor Noyes, is too important to be omitted in 
this record. 

* Upham's Lectures, p. 90. 



A PURITAN INaUISITOR. 95 

"Martha Cory, the wife of Giles Cory, was a member 
of the (independent) church in Danvers. A committee 
consisting of the pastor, the two deacons, and another 
member was sent by the church to the prison to promul- 
gate to her a doom similar to that to which Rebecca Nurse 
was consigned the day after her conviction. Mr. Parris 
declares in the records of the church that they found her 
' very obdurate, justifying herself, and condemning all who 
had done any thing to her just discovery or condemnation.' 
Whereupon after a little discourse (for says he ' her impe- 
riousness would not suffer much) and after prayer (which 
she was willing to decline) the dreadful sentence of ex- 
communication was pronounced against her.' 

" Mr. Noyes was also very active to prevent a revulsion 
of the public mind, or even the least diminution of the 
popular violence against the supposed witches. As they 
all protested their innocence to the moment of death, and 
as most of them exhibited a remarkably Christian deport- 
ment throughout the dreadful scenes they were called to 
encounter from their arrest to their execution, there was 
reason to apprehend that the people would gradually be 
led to feel a sympathy for them, if not to entertain doubts 
of their guilt. It became necessary, therefore, to remove 
any impressions unfavourable to themselves that might be 
made by the conduct and declarations of the convicts. 
Mr. Noyes and others were on the ground continually for 
this purpose." 

" One of the most interesting persons among the inno- 
cent sufferers was Mrs. Easty of Topsfield ; she was a sis- 
ter of Rebecca Nurse. Her mind appears to have been 
uncommonly strong and well cultivated, and her heart the 
abode of the purest and most christian sentiments. After 
her conviction, she addressed the following letter to the 
judges and ministers, by which it appears that she felt for 



96 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Others more than she did for herself. It is a striking and 
affecting specimen of good sense, of Christian fortitude, of 
pious humiUty, of noble benevolence, and of the real elo- 
quence of the heart. 

" ' To the honourable judge and bench now sitting in 
judicature in Salem and the reverend ministers humbly 
sheweth : — That whereas your humble and poor petitioner 
being condemned to die, doth humbly beg of you to take it 
into your judicious and pious consideration, that your poor 
and humble petitioner, knowing my own innocency (blessed 
be the Lord for it) and seeing plainly the wiles and subtilty 
of my accusers by myself cannot but judge charitably of 
others that are going the same way with myself, if the 
Lord step not mightily in. I was confined a whole month 
on the same account that I am now condemned, and then 
cleared by the afflicted persons as some of your honours 
know ; and in two days time I was cried out upon by them 
again, and have been confined and am now condemned to 
die. The Lord above knows my innocence then and like- 
wise doth now, as at the great day will be known by men 
and angels. I petition to your honours, not for my own life, 
for I know I must die, and my appointed time is set ; but 
the Lord he knows if it be possible that no more innocent 
blood be shed, which undoubtedly cannot be avoided in the 
way and course you go in. I question not but your hon- 
ours do the utmost of your powers, in the discovery and de- 
tecting of witchcraft and witches, and would not be guilty 
of innocent blood for the world ; but by my own innocency 
I know you are in the wrong way. The Lord in his infinite 
mercy direct you in this great work if it be his blessed will, 
that innocent blood be not shed. I would humbly beg of 
you that your honours would be pleased to examine some 
of those confessing " witches," I being confident there are 
several of them have belied themselves and others, as will 



A PURITAN INQUISITOR. 97 

appear if not in this world, I am sure in the world to come, 
whither I am going ; and I question not but yourselves will 
see an alteration in these things. They say myself and 
others have " made a league w4th the devil." We cannot 
confess ; I know and the Lord knows (as will shortly ap- 
pear) they belie me, and so I question not but they do 
others ; the Lord alone who is the searcher of all hearts 
knows — as I shall answer it at the tribunal seat — that / 
knoiD not the least thing of witchcraft^ therefore I cannot 
— I durst not belie my own soul. I beg your honours not 
to deny this my humble petition, from a poor dying innocent 
person, and I question not but the Lord will give a blessing 
to your endeavours. 

' Mary Easty.' 

" The parting interview of this excellent lady with her 
husband, children, and friends is said to have been a most 
solemn, affecting and sublime scene. She was executed 
with seven others. Mr. Noyes turned towards their bodies, 
and exclaimed with a compassion that was altogether 
worthy of an inquisitor, ' What a sad thing it is to see eight 
fire-brands of hell hanging there ! ! ' " 

John Proctor of Danvers went to court to attend his 
wife during her examination on the charge of witchcraft ; 
and having rendered himself disagreeable to the prosecuting 
witnesses by the interest he naturally took in her behalf, 
was accused by them on the spot of the same crime, con- 
demned, and executed. Both he and his wife sustained 
excellent characters in the village, and in Ipswich where 
they formerly resided. He wrote the following spirited and 
interesting letter to the [congregational] ministers of Boston^ 
requesting to be tried there, and protesting against the pro- 
ceedings of the court. 

7 



98 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Sale7n PiHson, July 23rd, 1692. 

« ' Mr. Mather, Mr. Allen, Mr. Moody, Mr. Willard and 
Mr. Baily :— 

" Reverend Gentlemen — The innocency of our case, 
with the enmity of our accusers, and our judges and jury, 
whom nothing but our innocent blood will serve, having 
condemned us already before our trials, being so much in- 
censed and enraged against us by the devil, makes us bold 
to beg and implore your favourable assistance of this our 
humble petition to his excellency, that if it be possible our 
innocent blood may be spared, which undoubtedly other- 
wise will be shed, if the Lord doth not mercifully step in, 
the magistrates, ministers, juries and all the people in gen- 
eral being so much enraged and incensed against us, by 
the delusion of the devil, — which we can term no other by 
reason we know in our own consciences, we are all inno- 
cent persons. Here are five persons who have lately con- 
fessed themselves to be witches, and do accuse some of us 
of being along with them at a sacrament since we were 
committed into close prison, which we know to be lies. 
Two of the five (Carrier's sons) are young men who would 
not confess anything till they tied them neck and heels till 
the blood was ready to come out of their noses ; and it is 
credibly believed and reported this was the occasion of 
making them confess what they never did by reason they 
said ' one had been a witch a month, and another five 
weeks, and that their mother made them so' — who has 
been confined here this nine weeks ! ! My son, William 
Proctor, when he was examined because he could not con- 
fess that he was guilty w<hen he was innocent, they tied 
neck and heels till the blood gushed out of his nose, and 
would have kept him so twenty-four hours if one, more 
merciful than the rest, had not taken pity on him and 
caused him to be unbound. 



A PURITAN INaUISITOR. 99 

" These actions are very like the popish cruehies. They 
have aheady undone ns in our estates, and that will not 
serve their turns without our innocent blood ! If it cannot 
be granted that we can have our trials at Boston, we hum- 
bly beg that you would endeavour to have these magis- 
trates changed, and others in their room ; begging also and 
beseeching you that you w ould be pleased to be here if not 
all, some of you at our trials, hoping thereby you may be 
the means of saving the shedding of our innocent blood. 
Desiring your prayers to the Lord in our behalf we rest 
your poor afflicted servants 

John Proctor, &c. &c. 

The unfortunate man's appeal to the ministers of the 
" standing order" was of no avail. No mitigation of his 
sufferings was allowed by his iron persecutors, on the con- 
trary the spirit of the memorial to the Executive by the 
congregational ministers " to proceed vigorously with the 
w^ork" was carried out with augmented severity ; and the 
special agent of the Inquisitor General, the blood-thirsty 
Noyes was the willing agent of the JSociety^s vengeance 
against a victim who had the temerity to remonstrate 
(though gently enough, God knows !) against its barbari- 
ties. " When Proctor was in prison," is the testimony of 
Mr. Upham, " all his property was attached, every thing 
was taken from his house, his family, consisting of eleven 
children were left destitute, even the food that was preparing 
for their dinner was carried away by the sheriff. After 
his conviction he petitioned for a little more time to prepare 
to die, but it was denied him. He begged Mr. Noyes to 
pray with him, but he refused, unless he would confess that 
he was guilty ! His numerous family was not permitted 
to starve. The cruelty that snatched the bread from their 
mouths was overruled by a merciful providence. His de- 



100 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

scendants who are found in all parts of the country, oc- 
cupy at this moment the estate, and cultivate the fields 
which he owned. 

The efforts of the prosecutors to extort confessions from 
their helpless victims is specially worthy of the deepest con- 
demnation ; and completes the portraiture which the other 
parts of their conduct bear to that of the actors in the famed 
proceedings by the heads and instruments of the Spanish 
Inquisition, "They importuned, harassed and vexed them 
continually to acknowledge their guilt. The public were 
prejudiced to suspect and convict of witchcraft all persons 
in whose character and conduct there were any marks of 
eccentricity or traits of peculiarity. Sarah Good had for 
some time previous to the delusion, been subject to a spe- 
cies of mental derangement of which sadness and melan- 
choly were the prevailing characteristics. She was accord- 
ingly accused of witchcraft, and condemned to die. Mr. 
Noyes urged her very strenuously at the time of her execu- 
tion to confess. Among other things he told her 'She was 
a witch, and that she knew she was a witch.' She was 
conscious of her innocence and felt that she was injured, 
oppressed and trampled upon, and her indignation was 
roused against her persecutors. She could not bear in si- 
lence the cruel aspersion, and although she was about to be 
launched into eternity, the torrent of her feelings could not 
be restrained, but burst upon the head of him who uttered 
the false accusation. ' You are a liar ' said she, ' I am no 
more a witch than you are a wizard — ^and if you take away 
my life, God will give you blood to drink.' "* 

Such was the conduct of a man whom the New Eng- 
land " orthodox" congregationalists still hold up as one of 
the early ornaments of their communion ; and who was 
only a few years ago thus alluded to in a Boston paper. 

* Upham, p. 99, etc. 



THE ACCUSERS. 101 

"It is no wonder that Salem and the adjacent parts of the 
country ; as also the churches, university and people of 
New England justly esteemed him as a principal part of 
their glory."(!!) 

Tradition, however, has handed down the circumstances 
of Noye's death; which in Mr. Upham's own words, 
" strangely verified the prediction wrung from the incensed 
spirit of the dying old woman" — and which it were not su- 
perstitious to regard as providentially designed to fix upon 
him the mark of divine displeasure. One of his own sect 
thus sets his seal to the belief which in process of time ex- 
tended throughout the community, and is now regarded as 
matter of history. 

" What are we to think of those persons who commenced 
and continued the accusation of the afflicted children and 
their confederates ? Shocking as is the view it presents of 
the extent to which hvnnan nature can be carried in de- 
pravity, I am constrained to declare, as the result of as 
thorough a scrutiny as I could institute, my belief that 
this dreadful transaction was introduced and driven on by 
wicked perjury and wilful malice. The young girls in Mr. 
Parris's family and their associates on several occasions in- 
dicated by their conduct and expressions that they were 
acting a part. It would be much more congenial with our 
feelings to believe that these misguided and wretched young 
persons early in the proceedings became themselves victims 
of the delusion into which they plunged every one else. 
But we are forbidden to form this charitable judgment by 
the manifestations of art and contrivance, of deliberate 
cunning and cool malice they exhibited to the end. Once 
or twice they were caught in their own snare, and nothing 
but the blindness of the bewildered community saved them 
from disgraceful exposure and well deserved punishment. 
They appeared as the prosecutors of almost every poor 



102 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

creature that was tried, and seemed ready to bear testi- 
mony against any one upon whom suspicion might happen 
to fall.* It is dreadful to reflect upon the enormity of their 
wickedness, if they were conscious of imposture throughout. 
It seems to transcend the capabilities of human crime. 
There is, perhaps, a slumbering element in the heart of 
man that sleeps forever in the bosom of the innocent and 
good, and requires the perpetration of a great sin to wake it 
into action, but which when once aroused, impels the trans- 
gressor onward with increasing momentum, as the descend- 
ing ball is accelerated in its course. It may be that crime 

* It is obvious that during the prevalence of the fanaticism, it was in the 
power of every man to bring down terrible vengeance upon his enemies by pre- 
tending to be " bewitched" by them. There is great reason to fear that this was 
often the case. If any one ventured to resist the proceedings, or to intimate a 
doubt respecting the guilt of the persons accused, the accusers would consider it 
as an affront to them, and proceed instantly to " cry out" against him. 

The wife of an honest and worthy man in Andover was sick of a fever of 
which she finally died ; during her illness it occurred to him, after all the usual 
means had failed to cure her that she might be bewitched. He went directly to 
Danvers to ask the afflicted persons there who had bewitched his wife. Two 
of them returned with him to Andover. Never did a place receive more inau- 
spicious visitors. Soon after their arrival they contrived to get more than fifty 
of the inhabitants imprisoned, several of whom were afterwards hanged for 
witchcraft. A Mr. Bradstreet, the magistrate of the place, alter having committed 
about forty persons to jail on their accusation, concluded that he had done 
enough, and declined to arrest any more ; the consequence was that they ac- 
cused him and his wife of being witches and they had to fly for their lives. A 
person by the name of Willard who had been employed to guard the prisoners 
to and from the jail, had the humanity to sympathise with the sufferers, and the 
courage to express his unwillingness to continue any longer in the odious em- 
ployment. This was very offensive to the afflicted children. They accordingly 
charged him with bewitching them. The unhappy man was condemned to 
death ; he contrived to escape from prison ; they were thrown into the greatest 
distress ; the news came that he was retaken ; their agonies were moderated, 
and at length he was hanged and then they were wholly relieved. It should 
be added that many of the accusers turned out afterwards very badly, becoming 
profligate and abandoned characters. — See Upham, p. 53. 



Mather's defence. 103 

begets an appetite for crime, which hke all other appetites 
is not quieted but inflamed by gratification." 

It has been stated that Cotton Mather endeavoured to 
escape the odium connected with the Salem persecutions. 
In his life of Sir William Phipps the governor of the col- 
ony " a man" says Mr. Upham "of an exceedingly feeble 
intellect, whom Dr. Mather appeared to have kept by flat- 
tery in complete subserviency to his purposes," he exhibits a 
true specimen of his Jesuitical cunning. During the pro- 
secutions, when the fever was at its height, the governor 
appealed for counsel and guidance to his spiritual adviser, 
who it will be remembered, with the ministers of Boston, 
advocated the carrying on of the work " speedily and vig- 
orously." In quoting the state papers as evidence that tlie 
clergy recommended " caution and circumspection," Dr. Ma- 
ther expunged all those passages urging the prosecution of 
the work " speedily and vigorously." The real spirit of the 
man, however, leaks out in the following passage, which af- 
fords a choice specimen of that language of cant and hypo- 
crisy, of which the English nation received such a surfeit 
during the Cromwellian usurpation. 

" And why, after all my vmwearied cares and pains to 
rescue the miserable from the lions and bears of hell, which 
had seized them, and after all my studies to disappoint the 
devils in their designs to confound my neighbourhood, must 
I be driven to the necessity of an apology ? Truly the 
hard representations wherewith some ill men have reviled 
my conduct, and the countenance which other men have 
given to these representations, oblige me to give mankind 
some account of my behaviour. No Christian can (I say 
none but evil workers can) criminate my visiting such of my 
poor flock as have at any time fallen vmder the terrible and 
sensible molestations of evil angels : let their afflictions 
have been what they will, I could not have answered it 



104 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

unto my glorious Lord, if I had withheld my just comforts 
and counsels from them ; and if I have also, with some ex- 
actness, observed the methods of the invisible world, when 
they have thus become observable, I have been but a ser- 
vant of mankind in doing so : yea, no less a person than 
the venerable Baxter has more than once or twice in the 
most public manner invited mankind to thank me for that 
service. 

" Wherefore instead of all apish shouts and jeers at his- 
tories which have such undoubted confirmation, as that no 
man that has breeding enough to regard the common laws 
of human society will offer to doubt of them ; it becomes 
us better to adore the goodness of God, who does not per- 
mit such things every day to befall us all, as he sometimes 
did permit to befall some few of our miserable neighbours. 

" And is it a very glorious thing that I have now to men- 
tion. — The devils have with most horrid operations broke 
in upon our neighbourhood, and God has at such a rate 
overruled all the fury and malice of those devils, that all 
the afflicted have not only been delivered but I hope also 
savingly brought home to God, and the reputation of no 
one good person in the world has been damaged, but in- 
stead thereof the souls of many, especially of the rising 
generation, have been thereby awakened unto some ac- 
quaintance with religion. Our young people who belonged 
unto the prayer meetings, of both sexes apart, would ordinar- 
ily spend whole nights by whole weeks together in prayers 
and psalms upon these occasions, in which devotions the 
devils could get nothing, but like fools a scourge for their 
own backs ; and some scores of other young people, who 
were strangers to real piety, were now struck with the live- 
ly demonstrations of hell, evidently set forth before their 
eyes when they saw persons cruelly frighted, wounded and 
starved by devils, and scalded with burning brimstone ; and 



THE PUBLIC VERDICT. 105 

yet so preserved in this tortured state, as that at the end 
of one month's wretchedness they were able still to under- 
go another ; so that of these also it might now be said — 
' Behold they pray.' In the whole the devil got just no- 
thing ; but God got praises, Christ got subjects, the Holy 
Spirit got temples, the Church got additions, and tlie souls 
of men got everlasting benefits. I am not so vain, as to 
say that any wisdom or virtue of mine did contribute unto 
this good order of things ; but I am so just as to say, I did 
not hinder this good."* 

Mr. Upham's forcible description of the termination of 
Mather's career, with the just reflections accompanying it, 
will form a proper conclusion to a narrative, which in its 
origin, its progress, and its results should never be for- 
gotten ! 

" I cannot indeed resist the conviction that, notwith- 
standing all his attempts to appear dissatisfied after they 
had become unpopular, with the occurrences in the Salem 
trials, he looked upon them with secret pleasure ; and 
would have been glad to have had them repeated again 
in Boston. How blind is man to the future ! The state of 
things which Cotton Mather laboured to bring about, in 
order that he might increase his own influence over an 
infatuated people by being regarded by them as mighty to 
cast out and vanquish evil spirits, and as able to hold Satan 
himself in chains by his prayers and his piety, brought 
him at length into such disgrace, that his power was 
broken down, and he became the object of public ridicule 
and open insult. And the excitement that had Ijeen pro- 
duced for the purpose of restoring and strengthening the 
influence of the clerical and spiritual leaders, resulted in 
effects which reduced that influence to a still lower point. 
The intimate connexion of Dr. Mather and other prominent 

* Mather's Works. 



106 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ministers with the witchcraft delusion brought a reproach 
upon the clergy from which they have never yet recov- 
ered. 

" In addition to the designing exertions of ambitious 
ecclesiastics, and the benevolent and praisewortliy efforts 
of those whose only aim was to promote a real and 
thorough reformation of religion, all the passions of our 
nature stood ready to throw their concentrated energy into 
the excitement (as they ever will do whatever may be its 
character) so soon as it became sufficiently strong to encour- 
age their action. 

" The whole force of popular superstition^all the fanat- 
ical propensities of the ignorant and deluded multitude 
united with the best feelings of our nature to heighten the 
fury of the storm. Piety was indignant at the supposed 
rebellion against the sovereignty of God, and was roused to 
an extreme of agitation and apprehension in witnessing 
such a daring and fierce assault by the devil and his adhe- 
rents upon the churches and the cause of the gospel. 
Virtue was shocked at the tremendous guilt of those who 
were believed to have entered the diabolical confederacy ; 
while public order and security stood aghast, amidst the 
invisible, the supernatural, the infernal, and apparently the 
irresistible attacks that were making upon the foundations 
of society, in baleful combination with principles, good in 
themselves, thus urging the passions into wild operation, 
there were all the wicked and violent affections to which 
humanity is liable. Theological bitterness, personal ani- 
mosities, local controversies, private feuds, long cherished 
grudges, and professional jealousies, rushed forward, and 
raised their discordant voices, to swell the horrible din ; 
credulity rose with its monstrous and ever expanding form, 
on the ruins of truth, reason and the senses ; malignity and 



upham's reflections. 107 

cruelty rode triumphantly through the storm, by whose fury 
every mild and gentle sentiment had been shipwrecked ; 
and revenge smiling in the midst of the tempest, welcomed 
its desolating wrath as it dashed the mangled objects of 
its hate along the shore " 



CHAPTER XVm. 

WITCHCRAFT DELUSION IN ENGLAND. 

It is only just to mention that during the seventeenth 
century there were numerous executions for witchcraft in 
England, and a much larger number in Scotland, besides 
other parts of Europe, though most persons were opposed 
to this severity. The law authorising it was first placed on 
the statue book by James the First's parliament to please 
that superstitious monarch, whose partiality for the study 
of demonology is well known. It is worthy of note that 
the most ultra iwotestants Avent the greatest lengths in 
these delusions ; which has drawn from a French Roman 
Catholic critic the following caustic and truthful censure— 
" So great folly did then oppress the miserable world, that 
Christians believed greater absurdities than could be im- 
posed upon the heathens." Thus the number of victims 
were comparatively small in England to those who suffered 
in Scotland, Sweden, etc. — and in our own country the 
work was principally encouraged by the non-conformists. 
One signal proof, amongst others, of this is afforded in the 
case of Matthew Hopkins, who, during the Great Rebellion 
travelled through the eastern counties in search of witches. 
His expenses were paid, and a fee was given for each dis- 
covery. His mode of detection was peculiar. — " Besides 
pricking the body to find the witch mark, he compelled the 
wretched and decrepid victims of his cruel practices to sit 
in a painful posture upon an elevated stool, with their limbs 
crossed, and if they persevered in refusing to confess he 



PURITAN CRUELTIES. 109 

would prolong their torture in some cases to more than 
twenty-four hours ; he would prevent them from going to 
sleep, and drag them about barefoot over the rough ground, 
thus overcoming them with extreme weariness and pain ; 
but his favourite method was to tie the thumb of the right 
hand close to the great toe of the left foot, and draw them 
through a river or pond ; if they floated, as they would be 
likely to do while their heavier limbs were thus sustained 
and upborne by the rope, it was considered as conclusive 
proof of their guilt." 

Such sagaciousness was doubtless worthy the agency of 
the puritanical faction whose reign had then commenced, 
Hopkins was sanctioned by the parliament and stimulated 
in his career of murder by Richard Baxter and some of his 
colleagues. Hudibras thus memorializes his exploits : — 

" Hath not this present Pariiament 
A leiger to the Devil sent, 
Fully empowered to treat about 
Finding revolted witches out 1 
And has he not within a year 
Hanged three-score of them in one shire 1" 

The career of this " witch finder" was suddenly termi- 
nated by some gentleman who employed his mode of de- 
tection on himself. They tied his thumbs and toes to- 
gether, and dragged him about in a horse pond, when as he 
did not sink he was convicted by his own test. This put a 
stop for a time to the work of death and outrage ; not how- 
ever till upwards of sixty-four had fallen through his 
means. 

One of his victims was an aged clergyman named Lewis, 
who had been the exemplary minister of a parish for more 
than half a century. " His infirm frame was subjected to 
the several tests, and even to the trial by water ordeal ; he 
was compelled to walk almost incessantly for several days 



110 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

and niffhts, until, in the exhaustion of his nature he was 

7/ 

made to assent to a confession that was adduced against 
him in court ; which however he disowned, and denied 
there and at all times from the moment he was released 
from the torments by which it was extorted from him, to 
the moment of his death ! As he was about to die the 
death of a felon, he knew that the rites of sepulture ac- 
cording to the forms of his denomination would be denied 
to his remains. The aged sufferer, it is related, read his 
own funeral service while on the scaffold. Solemn, sub- 
lime and affecting as is this most admirable portion of the 
excellent ritual of the Church, surely it was never per- 
formed under circumstances so well suited to impress with 
awe and tenderness, as when uttered by the calumniated, 
oppressed and dying old man."* 

The circumstances of his death, so calculated to stir up 
all the tenderest sympathies of those filling the same sa- 
cred office, only called forth the sneers and ridicule of the 
anti-prelatist Baxter, Avho gave him in derision the title of 
" the reading parson." So completely does sectarian hatred 
extinguish all the kindlier feelings of our nature when 
once it takes undivided possession of the soul. 

The cases of two women tried and convicted at Bury 
St. Edmunds before Sir Matthew Hale, who sentenced 
them to death, has frequently been mentioned in dispar- 
agement of that great and virtuous judge. But let it al- 
ways be borne in mind, that he was governed in his opin- 
ion by that of Sir Thomas Brown, a man whose position 
and celebrity as a scholar were unequalled in his age. It 
is the testimony of a reporter of the trial that " it made 
this great and good man [Hale] doubtfid, but he was in 
such fears, and proceeded with such caution that he would 
not so much as sum up the evidence, but left it to the jury 
* History of Witchcraft, p. 173. 



ARCHBISHOP HARSNET. Ill 

with prayers ' that the great God of heaven would dhect 
their hearts m that weighty matter.' " 

The credit of putting an end to the witchcraft dehision 
in England belongs peculiarly to Archbishop Harsnet, who 
was raised to the see of York by Charles I. in 1628, He 
exerted himself to bring the charges of the puritan " witch 
finders" into contempt and discredit, which his wit event- 
ually did much to accomplish. The following is one of 
his descriptions in stating the real motives and discovering 
the method of the cheating impostors : 

" Out of these is shaped to us the true idea of a witch : 
An old weather-beaten crone, having her chin and her 
knees meeting for age, walking like a bow, leaning on a 
staff; hollow-eyed, untoothed, furrowed on her face, having 
her limbs trembling with the palsy, going mumbling in the 
streets ; one that hath forgotten her 'pater nostei\ and yet 
hath a shrewd tongue to call a drab, ' a drab.' If she 
hath learned of an old wife in a chimney end Pax, Max, 
Fax, for a spell, or can say Sir John Grantham's curse for 
the miller's eels [" All ye that have stolen the miller's eels, 
Laudate dominum de ccbHs ; and all they that have con- 
sented thereto Be?iedicanms dotniiio"] why then beware ! 
look about you, my neighbours ! If any of you have a 
sheep sick of the giddies, or a hog of the mumps, or a 
horse of the staggers, or a knavish boy of the school, or an 
idle girl of the wheel, or a young drab of the sullens, and 
hath not fat enough for her porrage, or butter enough for 
her bread, and she hath a little help of the epilepsy or 
cramp, to teach her to roll her eyes, wry her mouth, gnash 
her teeth, startle with her body, hold her arms and hands 
stiff ; then when an old Mother Nobs hath by chance 
called her an " idle young housewife," or bid the devil 
" scratch her," no doubt but Mother Nobs is the witch, and 
the young girl is oivl blasted^ etc. They that have their 



112 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

brains baited, and their fancies distempered with the imagi- 
nations and apprehensions of witches, conjurors, fairies, 
and all that lymphatic chimera, I find to be marshalled in 
one of these five ranks ; — ^children, women, fools, cowards, 
sick or black melancholic discomposed wits." 

All praise to the honest Christian prelate who did not 
shrink in an age of fanaticism and misrule — England's 
" reign of terror" — to expose and denounce the arts and 
miserable schemes by which the credulous multitude were 
blindfolded ! 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1835. 

This year the General Convention of the American 
Episcopal Church was held in Philadelphia, when several 
important measures were consummated. One of these was 
to change the constitution of the Church Missionary So- 
ciety which had hitherto been a distinct voluntary associa- 
tion by connecting it with the Church : in other words — 
the Church resolved itself into a domestic and foreign mis- 
sionary society, every communicant of it to be a member 
of the same, and the bishops ex-officio its governors etc. 
This step has resulted in the most signal success ! There 
are now in the pay of the society seventy domestic, and 
thirteeen foreign missionaries distributed as follows : — 



Maine . 

New Hampshire . 

Delaware 


4 

2 
6 


Kentucky . 
Ohio . 
Indiana 


. 9 

. 7 
. 14 


North Carolina 


1 


Illinois 


. 14 


Georgia 
Florida . 


3 
. 5 


Michigan . 
Wisconsin . 


. 15 

. 8 


Alabama 


5 


Iowa . 


. 3 


Mississippi 
Louisiana 


. 5 
2 


Missouri . 
Arkansas . 


. 1 
. 3 


Tennessee 


3 


Indian Missions 


. 2 



These 70 missionaries supply 127 stations, the seeds of 
future parishes. Their remuneration is, however, very 

8 



114 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

small, varying from 50 to 500 dollars, pioporlioned to the 
amount raised by the people, which seldom goes towards 
the missionary salary till a church building is erected and 
paid for, during which time he is with few exceptions 
wholly dependant on the missionary stipend. These "mis- 
sionaries," it will be remembered, are besides the independ- 
ant parochial clergy of the country, and are fully under the 
bishop's jurisdiction in whose diocese they are located. 

Of the foreign missionaries five are stationed in Western 
Africa, with fourteen catechists, ladies, &c. ; three besides 
Bishop Boone in China ; two in Greece ; two besides 
Bishop Southgate in the dominions of the Sultan ; and 
three in Texas [now a part of the U. S.] besides Bishop 
Freeman. These clergymen are assisted by catechists, 
female teachers, &c. 

Bishop Chase having resigned, with the presidency of 
Kenyon College, which had been founded by his remark- 
able exertions, the episcopate of Ohio, and having been 
elected bishop of the newly-formed diocess of Illinois, the 
latter was "received and acknowledged as a diocess in 
union with the General Convention." Dr. Hawks was also 
appointed by the house of bishops missionary bishop to the 
South West, and Dr. Kember to tlie North West territory.* 
Dr. Hawks declined the appointment, which was assigned 
at the last convention (in 1844) to Dr. Freeman of 
Delaware. 

This was the last convocation in which the aged patriarch 
White presided, after directing its deliberations in that 
character for forty years.t This venerable man is I pre- 

* A " Territory" is one of those large sections of country not yet subdivided, 
(and organized) into " States." e. g. Oregon, called (I suppose facetiously) in 
the English papers, " The Oregon" is a " Territory." 

t Since 1795 the office of presiding bishop (as established at the first Con- 
vention of the united Church in 1789) is held by seniority of consecration. 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1835. 115 

Slime known to every English reader, as one of the prin- 
cipal agents in the hands of Providence in founding and 
establishing the American Church, of which he was a most 
distinguished ornament. 

Connected with Bishop Chase's resignation of the diocess 
of Ohio, in which he was one of the first mdssioiiaries, 
and on whose soil he had reared up for its sons a noble 
institution of learning which will doubtless stand many 
centuries an enduring monvmient to his zeal and quench- 
less love for the Church of his land and the best interests of 
her children, there were several circumstances of a very 
painful character ; which the good bishop made the sub- 
ject of strong complaint. They will be found fully detailed, 
with all the documentary facts bearing on them, in his 



Bishop White's predecessors were Seabury and Provoost. The first held the 
office till the convention of 1792, when the rule was changed to one ef rotation, 
beginning north, which gave it to Bishop Provoost who presided at that con- 
vention, and at the episcopal consecrations following, till 1795, when the same 
rule placed Bishop White in the presidential chair though against his own 
avowed, (and recorded) judgment. The following year Bishop Seabury died. 

At the first Convention of the Church (that of 1789) at which Bishop Sea- 
bury presided, the Constitution of the American Church was established the 
Convention regularly organized in two houses, and the Liturgy as now used 
was compiled. To his firmness and excellent judgment the Church is in- 
debted for the slight departure made from the English ordinal the addition to 
the communion office of the Scotch form of consecrating the elements (similar 
to the Greek, and other ancient forms) and numerous other conservative prin- 
ciples embodied in the ritual and canons. Bishop Provoost resigned the epis- 
copate of New York in 1801, when the first (good) rule — succession hy seniority 
of consecration, — became again established, and still continues. Under this 
rule, as well as the other, Bishop Provoost had title of precedency to Bishop 
White, having been, on account of seniority in years and in the ministry, first 
consecrated at Lambeth in 1787. The former died September 6, 1815. Bishop 
White died July 17, 1836, in the 89th year of his age, the 66th of his ministry, 
and the 50th of his episcopate. By his death Bishop Griswold succeeded to the 
highest ecclesiastical post, which he left Februrary 15th, 1843 iathe hands of 
the present occupant, Bishop Chase. 



116 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" Reminiscences," republishing in London, and are well 
worthy of the English reader's attentive consideration, as 
illustrating the practical effects of the democratic principle 
when carried into schools of learning. The whole history 
of the proceeding may be summed up in a few words : — 
The system of college government and discipline which 
Bishop Chase introduced, and his firm though mild ad- 
ministration of Kenyon, together with his (English framed) 
regulations for the rule of the professors, drew upon him 
from the subordinates of the establishment the charge of an 
arbitrary exercise of power, and the pupils were most im- 
properly excited to rebellion, and arrayed by their tutors 
against the venerable president. " Any one," remarks the 
narrator, "acquainted with human nature, and the influ- 
ence of instructors over the minds of their pupils, may 
easily suppose they could not fail to be successful. In this 
respect perhaps, the world never witnessed a more com- 
plete ascendency of designing men on the minds of unsus- 
pecting youth. At length there appeared great boldness on 
the part of the teachers against tlie bishop. They found 
fault with him for almost every thing. The magnitude of 
Rosse Chapel was made the subject of great censure among 
the professors. " The compartment for the chancel," they 
said, " was too large — too much in the style of the English 
cathedrals," and then it was to be under the rectoral power 
of the bishop. One of them went so far as to tell the 
bishop that " this chapel was the cause of all his troubles." 
He was amazed at this observation, till then not knowing 
that any had complained of him on this score. At length 
the conduct of the professors and teachers became very dis- 
respectful ; they wrote him insulting notes ; and to close 
all, they addressed him jointly in a most unbecoming let- 
ter, written in very bad taste, accusing him of " exercising 
arbitrary power," and signed the same, not with their 



KENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 117 

individual names, but with these words, " The Professors of 
Kenyon College," and published it to the world. 

It may be well conceived that this was a heavy blow to 
the generous-hearted prelate ; whose single and unaided 
exertions had, after a long trial of perseverance, untold 
labours, and heavy pecuniary sacrifice, first planted the 
college,* to wiiich the last six years of his life had been 
unceasingly devoted ; and to whom these very professors 
were indebted for their seats. But the circumstances at- 
tending the sequel, make yet a stronger claim on the sym- 
pathies of every generous reader. The bishop was shortly 
to meet his convention when this accusation was brought 
against him, and made it the subject matter of his episco- 
pal address as head of the diocess. On the day before the 
meeting of this convention the bishop in the act of crossing 
the timbers of the unfinished college chapel, met with a 
severe accident, in falling between the joists, which tem- 
porally maimed him, and under the agony of which he 
was suffering during the delivery of the address, which in 
simple and touching language told the history of his college 
trials, and exhibited a defence of every step of his presiden- 
tial course by an appeal to the constitution and laws ; 
dwelling particularly on the compact between the donors 
and the trustees, which he had showed that he had scru- 
pulously adhered to, and which it was the aim of the pro- 
fessors to set aside ! The bishop firmly opposed the de- 
mand of the teachers to " make and administer laws, by a 
majority of voices" in opposition to his constitional right, 
which he was bound to maintain, 

* Bishop Chase commenced his undertaking with £G00O, which he collected 
in England, Lords Kenyon and Gambler being the principal contributors; with 
which, and the money raised in America, he purchased eight thousand acres 
of land, and commenced the walls. The first College is named " Kenyon," and 
the village "Gambier:" the chapel " Rosse" after the Countess Dowager, a 
benefactress. 



118 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" I have not words," concluded the bishop, " to express 
my astonishment at the rash act of tliese gentlemen. It is 
not the uncourteous style, and the instances of bad taste 
which it exhibits in addressing me, their father and friend, 
as I feel myself to be ; no ! it is the dreadful consequences 
which, I fear, are but too likely to follow this unexampled 
deed, that causes me to mourn smcerely. 

" The peace of God's Church, the peace and honour of 
our own communion, and the prosperity of our College, 
Oh ! where are they ? Where are they not^ if found on the 
face of such a letter as this. 

"Yet it has gone to the world, and, at this moment, is 
doing its dreadful work of destruction to our Seminary. 
' Oh ! tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of 
Askelon ! Lest the daughters of Philistia rejoice, lest the 
enemies of my people triumph.' " 

The bishop's narrative states that during the delivery of 
his address " the wounded limb became so painful that he 
was obliged, immediately on its close, to leave the chair to 
the senior presbyter, the Rev. Samuel Johnston, and retire 
to his residence in the college. This being the distance of 
a quarter of a mile, his walking thither had well nigh 
caused him to faint. Mingled with liis bodily pain was 
that of his mind, for he had seen enough, even in this short 
visit he had paid his Convention, to convince him that the 
leading men were one with the conspirators, and had come 
prepared to aid them ' in putting down the bishop.' 

"The writer was detained for forty-eight hours by the 
extreme pain of his wounded leg, ere he could think of 
meeting the Convention again. In that time much had 
been done in their own way, both with tools without and 
within doors. Both the teachers and the unsuspecting 
scholars had been afresh invited by ' the spirit of the age ' 
to ' resist and put down authority.' The spectators at the 



KENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 119 

meetings of the Convention, seeing what was going on 
there, were well prepared to show disrespect to their bishop, 
as he walked unattended thither again. As he crept along, 
every thing seemed to wear the saddest aspect. Scarcely 
a living object passed him without some signs of disrespect. 
Even the smallest grammar school boys, in obedience to 
the example and faithful training of the professors and 
teachers, had learned to cry out, ' it was too much power to 
commit to the hands of- one man ;' and the little guns they 
were allowed by the teachers to load with powder, were 
fired with shouts of independence of episcojial tyranny. 
The very clerk in the college store had been won over to 
the cause, and was heard often to boast of his belonging to 
the Anti-Bishop Party.'' "* 

The bishop's worst suspicions were confirmed ! On the 
ninth day of the session he took his seat in the chair, and 
heard the report of " a committee to whom had been re- 
ferred so much of his address as related to the difficulties 
of Kenyon College ;" in which " Report" the committee 
took sides with the faculty. The apostolic man made no 
response — he silently allowed the usual business to proceed, 
— and, at the stated time for divine service, he took his 
way unattended to the temporary chapel (a school house) 
"lingering necessarily" as the account describes " by reason 
of his lameness. It was a fine day in the first part of 
September ; the elevated part in which he walked gave 
him that view of the grounds all around for which the 
place is so much admired. Halting for a few moments, 
with no arm to lean on but that of a pitying God, who had 
supported him in all his trials, he gathered strength and 
composure to think calmly of the past, to contemplate the 
present, and anticipate the future ; in doing which, never 
did his breast feel such an assemblage of mingled emotions. 
* Reminiscences, p. 742. 



120 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

He remembered how, led by the hand of Providence, he 
had descried this ' goodly land ;' how, in laying it out into 
fit portions for the great porposes in view, he had for some 
months together reposed in a hut without a floor, with a 
billet of wood only for his pillow. He called to mind the 
sleepless nights and the toilsome days spent, the one in 
anxious thoughts, the other, fatiguing labour. 

" He contrasted the past with the present, and none can 
describe the emotions created in his bosom when he listen- 
ed to the voice of duty compelling him to leave all in the 
hands of unjust accusers and a misguided diocess ; the for- 
mer governed by an unworthy jealousy and mean selfish- 
ness, and the latter blinded by intrigue, and rushing on in 
a course of measures which he could plainly see (if not ar- 
rested by a merciful Providence) would end in the utter ruin 
of the institution. He could not be a partaker with them 
in this work of injustice and destruction ! He could not 
with his own hand sign his own death-warrant, nor legal- 
ize by his continuance in office, an interruption of the con- 
stitution of the Seminary directly contrary to the intention 
of the founders. He must surrender what he could not re- 
tain, either in honour, justice, or peace. He attended 
chapel, and heard the sermon preached by Mr. Ethan Al- 
len — went home, and wrote the form of resignation which 
follows : 

" RESIGNATION. 

"To the Clergy and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church of the Diocess of Ohio, assembled in convention 
in Gambler, on this the 9th day of Sept., 1831. 

" Brethren — We have heard this day a sermon 
preached by the Rev. Ethan Allen from God's word, which 



KENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 121 

I desire him to publish, — that we must live in peace , or we 
cannot be christians ; and that to secure peace, especially 
that of God's Church, great sacrifices must sometimes be 
made. Influenced by these principles, I am willing, in or- 
der to secure the peace of God's Church and that of our 
beloved Seminary, in addition to the sacrifices which, by 
the grace of God, have been already made, to resign ; and 
I do hereby resign the Episcopate of this Uiocess, and with 
it what I consider constitutionally identified, the Presidency 
of the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church of the Diocess of Ohio. 

" The Convention will make this known to the Trustees, 
whom I am no longer to meet in my official capacity. 

" Philander Chase." 

The resignation was accepted, and the convention, on 
the same day elected the Rev. Charles P. M. Ilvaine to fill 
the vacancy. Thus was suddenly and unexpectedly sev- 
ered a connection which had existed for twelve years. In 
language not egotistical, the bishop whose services were 
thus in a moment forgotten, when " liberty" (that blas- 
phemed word) and " release from episcopal restraint" were 
the objects in pursuit " had organized almost every parish 
in the diocess, had baptized the young, and confirmed the 
middle-aged, and administered the bread of life to all. He 
had befriended all the parishes as they were brought into 
being, and to his remembrance never had passed a harsh 
word or look with any of the parochial clergy ; so that, if 
they were sincere in following the deceptive persuasions of 
the college professors, they could not be blind to these facts, 
engraven on the tablets of their memories. They might 
truly say, " Here is our bishop, who has never intentionally 
done us any harm, but, on the contrary, always endeav- 
oured to do us good. He came over the high hills, and 



122 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

sought US, wlien there was but httle or no care for us iu 
the bosom of all the Church beside. He gathered us to- 
gether as a diocess, the first of primitive order and truth in 
the western country, and ever since has presided over us 
without reproach. Here he now is, our shepherd and 
friend ; and to add to these most interesting relationships, 
he is also the founder, under God, of a great institution — 
of a Theological Seminary surnamed Kenyon College, 
\vliich he is now building up on Gambler Hill, names most 
beloved, because they are those of his personal friends in 
our mother land, who gave him the means to do this. (If 
they did not, who did ? surely we did not.) Thus, by his 
hand, was this great tree planted, and watered with foreign 
dews — under whose shadow we are now sitting", and eating 
the fruit thereof, without being required to bring the smallest 
offering as a token of our gratitude to a heavenly Saviour 
for such favours, or as a pledge of our duty to support his 
minister, our bishop, who is ever glad to see us, ungrateful 
as we have proved ourselves. Here he is happy to minister 
to us as a servant to his master, because he thinks we be- 
long to Christ. When we come hither, the servants of the 
institution wait upon us. Our tables are supplied by his 
orders, and our pillows are smoothed by his command — at 
his, not our own cost. All this without one word of up- 
braiding language ; no, neither for innumerable kindnesses 
which he is shewing unto us, nor for the injuries which we 
are doing unto him, by caballing with his enemies. And 
while he is thus doing right and suffering ivrong, lie 
maintains his own principles with sincerity and firmness ; 
and, what is still more, for the sake of peace he waives all 
pride of contest, and offers to appeal to the only earthly 
tribunal left — the heads of our diocesses, as a Constitutional 
Committee of Reference of difficulties between the seminary 
and him. To this appeal we refuse to lend a listening 



KENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 123 

ear ! ! We turn from him, as we did just now when he ap- 
pealed to us for trial and justice against his accusers ; and, 
what is still more strange, and un-heard of before in a 
Christian land those very accusers of our bishop 

ARE permitted TO SIT IN THE BODY OF THIS CON- 
VENTION, all this while of trouble, and not only to give a 

SILENT vote AGAINST HIM, but TO INVENT, AND SET 
IN ORDER, AND MANAGE, ALL THE PLANS AND APPOINT- 
MENTS OF ALL THE COMMITTEES BY WHICH HE IS TO 
BE RUINED." 

There are several circumstances of an aggravated nature 
connected with the act of the Ohio clergy in this unkindly 
separation with their spiritual father. One was that nearly 
all had received their ministerial commission from him ! 
" To the laity" also the bishop writes " I might appeal with 
Samuel : Whom have I defrauded 1 — whom have I op- 
pressed 7 Yea, I have withheld from them a just mainte- 
nance " seeking not theirs, but them — not the fleece but the 
flock." 

The prospect — so painful to a man whose whole soul 
had been long concentrated in a design, every part of which 
had, in turn, occupied his waking and sleeping hours — of a 
general and total alteration of his plans, down to the detail 
of the huild'wg operations was not either a trifling griev- 
ance. The English lover of taste in architectural embel- 
lishment, and the properties of college accomodations, will 
be prepared to sympathize with the good bishop in one part 
of his trial in a larger degree, perhaps, than he received 
sympathy amongst his countrymen, whose (mistaken) utili- 
tarian notions would obscure their judgment in reading this 
part of his plaint : — 

" Jn a great and permanent institution, it is necessary 
that there be a coiisisteiit design ; and not only that the 
advantages of nature be tastefully used, but that the whole 



124 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

plan speak the character of the institution. This had been 
the endeavour of the founder of the Theological Seminary. 
The grounds had been selected with this view — the position 
of the main building had been chosen for this end. Its 
material was of the most durable kind, (stone,) put up in 
the substantial manner, in semi-Gothic style of architec- 
ture, as most suitable for an episcopal seminary, or college. 
Fronting this, and at proper distances, but without obstruct- 
ing the view, it was intended to erect two professors' houses 
of like material. One of these was commenced, — the part 
erected being intended to be the wing of a larger building. 
But scarcely had the Convention risen, before preparations 
began for putting up on the opposite side a professor's 
house, of brick, — thus at once destroying the unity of the 
plan. [Barbarians !] That this work might proceed more 
expeditiously, the stones which had already been hauled, 
dressed, and numbered, for Rosse Chapel were taken to 
build the cellar and foundation of this house. 

" Even the workmen who had assisted in preparing these 
materials for the house of God, refused their help to turn 
them to such a purpose ; and others, less scrupulous, were 
employed. 

'• The situation, dimensions, and progress of Rosse Chap- 
el, have been heretofore described. It was not to be sup- 
posed that this could escape, since, in the envious eye of 
some, it had been declared to be the cause of all the writer's 
troubles. It had been planned and put in progress by him ; 
but those who followed him were, it seems, very scrupulous 
about '■ building on another man's foundation.' 

" In the first place, its design was Gothic : as that sa- 
voured too much of episcopacy, it was changed into the 
Grecian order, with pillars in front. Again, its size was 
large, and would occasion too much expense ; therefore the 
chancel (another episcopal appendage) must be cut off, — 



KENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 125 

though double the sum necessary to continue that be ex- 
pended in excavating a basement story after the walls had 
been built up solid to the floor, and the sleepers laid. The 
Corner Stone of the building had been deposited in the 
chancel wall, in the name of the Holy Trinity, dedicating 
the house to be erected thereon to the service of the Lord 
for ever. But this formed no obstacle in the desig-ns of 
these men ! They were not bound by forms, or tram- 
melled by siqyerstition. They could dig up the holyyb;/w- 
dation stone, and scatter its contents about, without fear of 
the punishment of sacrilege. Perhaps the documents it 
contained were offensive to them, even in their resting- 
place." 

Though all the friends of Kenyon would perceive, and 
take the alarm at what follows : — 

" Selfishness now prevailed over great and sacred inter- 
ests. Private dwellings of various sorts now appeared in 
progress, instead of the public buildings ; while the great 
concerns of the farms, mills, stock, and merchandise, were 
given into the hands of others, to avoid care. 

" Under such a state of things, was it not with reason 
that the writer felt anxiety for the safety of that institution 
for which he had labovired so long, and generous episcopa- 
lians had given so much ? — anxiety lest its funds and prop- 
erty should be spent and alienated before a successor (who, 
it was hoped, would check such a spirit) should arrive. 

" His solicitude was not lessened when he heard, from his 
retirement, that, to relieve their embarrassments, the per- 
sons who had control of affairs, but having no legal au- 
thority to act, had offered the north section for sale !"* 

I am. however, getting a little in advance of this piteous 
history. Another aggravating circumstance connected with 
the forced withdrawal of Bishop Chase from his diocess 

♦ Reminiscences. The north section is four thousand acres of rich land. 



126 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

and college, was that the " Gambler Observer," which 
from the commencement of the persecution had been em- 
ployed to his injury, — the most effective instrument in the 
hands of his enemies in the work of prejudicing the minds 
of the parochial clergy, and lay delegation before their at- 
tendance at the Convention which struck the final fatal 
bloiv,- — and whose editor,* the bishop complained, " ex- 
cluded every thing from its columns wliich could benefit 
his cause, and since his resignation had given to the diocess 
not one word which could inform them of the state of pub- 
lic opinion, excepting so far as to publish whatever would 
contribute to consolidate the power of his opponents," was 
printed on the Ackland Press, presented by lady Ackland 
to Bishop Chase, " and has never ye/" he informs us " been 
given by him, or sold to the seminary ! !" 

One is tempted to exclaim, with all due deference to 
the clerical character of the evangelical editor — C'est in- 
fdme ! 

The Convention, however, was not unanimous. One 
noble hearted presbyter, backed by seventeen of the laity, 
took a determined stand against the operation of " spiritual 
wickedness in high places," and left on the journals of the 
house his protest against a proceeding of high handed out- 
rage. To the resolution " that the Convention proceed 
forthwith to elect a bishop," C. B. Goddard, Esq., of Zanes- 
ville presented as an amendment, two resolutions, one de- 
claring " that the Trustees of the Seminary are the legisla- 
tive body thereof, and that the President is the Executive 
of the Institution, bound to carry into effect the statutes 
&c. by them enacted, until the same shall be reversed by 
the General Convention ;" and the other " inviting Bishop 
Chase to revoke his resignation, and resume the duties of 
the episcopate." In an eloquent speech Mr. Goddard pass- 
* The Rev. W. Sparrow. 



KENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 127 

ed a high, and well merited eulogium on his bishop, in 
which (on a reply, full of gall and vituperation from Dr. 
Aydelotte of Cincinnati, a prime mover in the conspiracy) 
he was seconded by Mr. Bezaleel Wells, who declared him- 
self " ready to proclaim to the diocess of Ohio, and to the 
world that Bishop Chase was, in all this controversy, an 
injured man — his motives, and his conduct misrepresent- 
ed ;"* which assertions Mr. Wells completely established. 

The name of the clergyman who supported, and voted 
for the amendment of Mr. Goddard, was Intrepid Morse, 
rector of St. Paul's, Steubenville. 

Well named ! — Mr. Morse's sponsors must have had 
some foresight of his stern virtue in after life. Amongst 
his clerical colleagues on the occasion of their defection, 
the tribute of a sacred bard to the leige love of a kindred 
spirit may be not inaptly rendered : — 

Faitnful found 
Among the faithless, faithful only he ; 
Among [his brethren] false, unmoved, 
Unshaken, unscduced, unterrified. 
His loyalty he kept — his love — his zeal ; 
Nor number, nor example, with him wrought 
To swerve from truth, or change his constant niind. 
Though sins:leA 



* The numerous English benefactors of Kenyon College, and friends of 
Bishop Chase will like to know the names of those laymen who voted with 
Messers. Goddard and Wells; they are: — T. T. Fraker, John Clements, 
J. Hickcox, A. Holmes, J. H. Viers, J. McCullough, B. M. Atherton, J. Foster, 
G. H. Griswold, D. FUpping, Arious Nye, C. Curtis, J. Glass, R. Maxwell, 
S. P. Chase. 

1 1 could not resist an inclination, which an acquaintance with the circum- 
stances of the Kenyon business through the printed accounts, made all power- 
ful, to visit this gentleman on the occasion of a western trip, (if the term may 
now be permitted"! so powerfully was I interested in Bishop Chase's history, 
and fortunes. This visit will be described in a subsequent chapter. In Mr. 
Morse's parlour, with the venerable features of the good prelate looking down 



128 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Bishop Chase hastened his departure from the hill of 
Gambler, though his place of ultimate destination could 
not be determined. Retiring to a farm belonging to his 
niece about twenty miles from the scene of his success and 
his sufferings, he devoted his attention to its cultivation, 
and ministered in the character of a missionary priest to 
the spiritual wants of the neighbourhood. In this " Valley 
of Peace" as he named his retreat he was visited by one of 
his former friends, (Mr. Wells) on his way to Michigan, 
and induced to remove to a richer soil in that state, whi- 
ther he transferred his family on the fourth of July 1832. 
He left Ohio — into which he had entered a solitary pioneer 
of the cross, to plant the standard of apostolic order — with 
fourteen clergymen, eight parish churches, college buildings 
advancing towards completion standing upon eight thou- 
sand acres of land.* 

How wonderfully is the wrath of man made to praise 
God ! The solitary missionary wandering forth to the then 
almost desert wilds of Michigan, the staff of his apostle- 
ship snatched from his grasp by unscrupulous hands, was 
to be led by another Hand into a territory far remote even 
from OhiOjt where, maintained by the same power he was 
to rear up a second school of prophets, exceeding the for- 
mer in extent and plan : an institution to which future gen- 
erations will point as a trophy of the signal and certain 
success attending — a faithful trust in divine prov- 
idence ! The indomitable perseverance of the western 
apostle has overcome every obstacle which selfishness 
and infidelity throw around the American missionary's path 

on us from the faithful canvass, I richly enjoyed a long evening's conversation, 
of which the history and fortunes of Bishop Chase formed the principle burden. 
Dear to the heart is such a reminiscence ! 

* The Ohio clergy now exceed sixty Ln number. 

t The wide state of Indiana lies between Ohio and Illinois. 



YENYON COLLEGE TROUBLES. 129 

in her western territory ; and in planting another diocess 
where twenty-two clergymen look up to hira with filial love 
and vnireserved confidence, and rearing up a second univer- 
sity he has awakened a zeal among the friends of the 
Church in the far west which is seen in the rapid extension 
of her borders over countries many hundred miles even 
from the prairies of Illinois. 

In the present Convention Bishop Chase's election to the 
mitre of Illinois by the six clergymen of that state was 
confirmed by both houses, and he again took his seat in 
the house of bishops — -" A veteran soldier, a bishop of the 
cross, whom hardships never have discouraged, whom no 
difiiculties seem to daunt, and who entered upon his new 
campaign with all the chivalry of thirty-five, was cor- 
dially welcomed to his seat amongst the councillers of 
the church."* 

It only remains to add, in the merest summary of facts, 
the result to the institution on Gambler Hill, of Bishop 
Chase's withdrawal from it. Like the vineyard of Naboth 
to the King of Israel, " the possession of an inheritance" 
violently wrested from its lawful keeper, "brought evil 
upon" the Ahabs of Kenyon College. The indecent haste 
with which they proceeded, — the prompt action by which 
the episcopal vacancy was filled in the election of Mr. 
Mcllvaine — " indicating" as Bishop Chase remarks " that 
they had come prepared to act," — the hurry shown in com- 
mencing the work of demolition and sacrilege, — and lastly, 
the contempt shown for the will of the donors, and the open 
violation of a solemn contract made with them in the offer 
of four thousand acres of college lands — were all indica- 
tions of the honesty of the acting " trustees," and signifi- 
cant earnests of their moral qualifications to undertake the 

* Bishop Doane. 

9 



130 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

general superintendence of the institution, and more par- 
ticularly the responsible business of tuition ! 

The new bishop soon found that he was only elected as 
a more pliant instrument in the hands of the professors, 
for accomplishing their projects of aggrandizement. " Our 
newly elected bishop," writes one of the delegates of the 
Ohio Convention in 1832, " is not expected to take upon 
himself the immediate superintendence of our seminary — 
nay it is asserted by the 'reformers' that he will do no 
such thing, — but that he will itinerate and preach to large 
congregations, which, it is averred he has a wonderful 
faculty of assembling ; while the seminary (which should 
be in unity with the General Seminary, and the Church 
of America) will be managed by those who have sacri- 
ficed their father and friend — their benefactor, without 
whose patronage they would now have been in oljscurity, 
and almost revolutionized the character of our Church 
merely, it is believed, to perpetuate the enjoyment of their 
salaries, and retain for a longer space their usurped au- 
thority on Gambler Hill." The scheme of merging the 
seminary in the college, was effected without any consult- 
ation with the new bishop ; and an act of the Legislature 
of Ohio was obtained without his consent newly incorpo- 
rating the Theological Seminary as a separate college, in 
conformity with the views of the professors. The work 
was completed in 1839 by an act supplementary to this, by 
which " the Bishop of Ohio is denuded and, contrary to the 
intention of the founder and donors, severed from all con- 
nexion with Kenyon College ; and what is more still, all 
the property given by the donors or the founder,* or other- 

* Bishop Chase's own contributions were munificent. He had given his 
farm, hbrary, several large sums of money, — in fact nearly his all; but, of course 
(as in the case of the English donors) conditional upon the non-alienation of 
the lands, and the continuance of the original Constitution, by which the college 



KENYON COLLEGK TROUBLES. 131 

wise acquired by his management or industy, is by one 
sweep thrown into the hands of a separate body from the 
designed seminary, and all this without even naming the 
bishop "* 

This last was an independent action of the trustees ; done, 
writes Bishop Chase " contrary to the wishes of the present 
Bishop of Ohio," who " expressed some words of caution to 
the trustees lest they should go too fast and far." 

Bishop Mc Ilvaine has likewise in his "Address at the 
laying the corner stone of Bexley Hall,"t done full justice 
to his worthy predecessor ; on which occasion he stated — 
that Kenyon College, as originally founded, has " no incor- 
poration, no property, no trustees, no faculty^ except as it is 
part and parcel of the Theological Seminary ; being simply 
a preparatory branch of that Seminary ; having this only 
for its distinctive college feature, " that when the faculty 
of the Theological Seminary are acting in reference to 
the affairs of that prejtaratory branch, they act as the 

of Kenyon was essentially a branch, and attached only to the Seminary, with 
the presidency of which the episcopal officer should be (or Lords Kenyon and 
Gambler would never have contributed a dollar) perpetually identified ; whereas 
the institution which Bishop Chase founded was, to use his own words, " de- 
funct, and those who were in possession of the property which he gave and 
collected would be obliged to surrender were an action, duly setting forth the 
nature and evidence of the case brought before a court of competent jurisdic- 
tion." This the Bishop affirmed was the judgment of both American and Eng- 
lish donors. One of the English Bishops, who had liberally contributed, wrote 
to Bishop Chase : — 

" Surely they have broken through the terms and conditions on which your 
English trustees transmitted our money to your hands. They have forfeited 
our money, and can be called on to refund it." 

It was a heartless act on the part of these reverend repudiators that they re- 
fused to refund a thousand dollars which Bishop Chase had set apart for the 
erection on Gambler Hill of a house for his own residence ; and the delay attend- 
ing his getting from them some arrears of salary, etc., would have caused him 
" distressing consequences," but for the timely assistance of a distant brother. 

♦ Reminiscences, p. 823. t Named after Lord Bexley. 



132 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

faculty of a college ; and when they confer degrees upon 
the graduates of that branch, they do so, not in the name 
of the president and professors of the Theological Semi- 
nary, but of Kenyon College." 

As further proof, to use Bishop Chase's words, that his 
successor has " endeavoured to throw off the incubus under 
which he had been placed at his consecration, and has been 
brought to his right understanding of the matter," he 
recommended to the Ohio Convention of 1839 a change in 
the constitution of the Seminary, in conformity with the 
foregoing, though without falHng back upon the whole pro- 
visions of the original act of incorporation, obtained in 
1824. Though this alteration (agreed to by the Ohio Con- 
vention) did not receive Bishop Chase's concurrence in the 
House of Bishops, being, as he records, " contrary to the 
fundamental law of the Seminary, which neither the Con- 
vention, nor Legislature, nor any power short of that of 
the donors can alter," yet it places the institution at Gam- 
bier on a footing more closely in conformity with the design 
of the original donors than previously existed, and was car- 
ried into effect contrary to the wish of those who planned 
Bishop Chase's removal. 

Bishop Mc Ilvaine has also greatly exerted himself in 
gathering funds for the college and schools, which have 
been twice jeopardized by the ill management of the trus 
tees, whose departure from the original designs of the 
founder, has proved nearly fatal to the existence of the in- 
stitution. Though still in some degree under the baleful 
influence which drove Bishop Chase into the wilds of 
Michigan in 1831, Kenyon College it is hoped may yet be 
saved from threatening ruin, and prove an eminent blessing 
to future generations in Ohio. 



CHAPTER XX. 

RHODE ISLAND. NARRAGANSETT BAY. 

Rhode Island, as all the world knows, was first found- 
ed by Roger Williams, a banished exile from Massachusetts, 
where he had advocated sentiments which were deemed 
heretical by the puritan magistrates of that colony. This 
was in 1634. The " heretical " doctrine for which the con- 
gregational ministers of Massachusetts obtained Williams's 
banishment was " that the civil magistrate should restrain 
crime, but never control ojnnion — should punish guilt but 
never violate ihe freedom of the sozil."* 

However unsafe this doctrine may be in the interpreta- 
tion which Williams's descendants have given it, it was, at 
the least, glaringly inconsistent for his enemies to make it 
the ground of a capital charge, when the founders of their 
own colony had left England on the alleged grievance of its 
violation there, and had established themselves on the pro- 
fessed platform of religious liberty. The rigour with which 
they persecuted all who dared to dissent from them, even 
in the smallest matters of doctrine or Church government, 
affords a melancholy and salutary instance of sectarian in- 
tolerance when its leaders obtain uncontrolled power over the 
persons and consciences of the community. The opposition 
of which they complained from the " English arch prelate," 
the " surpliced Laud" in their vexatious labours to under- 
mine and uproot the church of which he was the temporal 
guardian, though attended with undue severity, was light- 

* Bancroft. Williams was a baptist minister. 



134 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ness itself compared to their own proscriptions almost as 
soon as they acquired power, and constituted the " standing 
order" of a new country : a term still retained by many of 
the congregational preachers of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire, though their " order" is reduced to an inconsid- 
erable sect amongst a multitude of others ; and in this their 
once stronghold their religious influence as a denomination 
is lessening every year. 

But to return to Roger Williams. — Driven forth from the 
family of his white brethren, he penetrated the wilderness 
till he found the habitation of the native Indians on Nar- 
ragansett Bay, whose chiefs Pokanoket, Massasoit, and 
Cananicut, received him with a friendly welcome, and in 
their wigwams he found a temporary shelter. The bay on 
whose banks these chiefs dwelt, indents what is now Rhode 
Island State about thirty-five miles, running north from the 
Atlantic Ocean ; out of it rise five principal islands, named 
respectively Rhode, Cananicut, Prudence, Hope and Pa- 
tience. The largest of these, Rhode Island, after which 
the state is called, is so fertile, and so picturesque in its 
scenery that it has long enjoyed the appellation of " the 
Eden of America." Cananicut, the second island in size, 
is nine miles long, varying from one to two miles in breadth. 
There is nothing like a town or village in this, or either of 
the islands except Rhode ; the population being composed 
exclusively of agriculturalists, who cultivate a soil of ex- 
traordinary richness. 

At the head of this lovely bay Williams established him- 
self; calling the name of the place "Providence," in token 
of his dependence on divine favour. There the city of Prov- 
idence, the capital of the state, now stands ; with its univer- 
sity, its churches, its state house, its arcade, its harbour fill- 
ed with vessels, and its twenty-two thousand inhabitants — 
the second city in New England. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



DR. CROCKER. 



Ecclesiastically, Providence has much to recom- 
mend it. Though the congregations under episcopal govern- 
ment are only five out of fourteen, the attachment of dif- 
ferent non-episcopal denominations of Christians to their 
peculiar systems is more entirely the result of accident in 
Rhode Island, than, perhaps, in any State of the Union. 
That spirit of opposition to any restrictions of conscience 
which marked its early history, is shown in the favour with 
which the rapid growth of episcopacy has been regarded. 
From looking on the Church with an unsuspicious eye, the 
intelligent part of the coinnmnity soon discovered that 
apostolic order and ritual worship were not such necessary 
precursors of prelatical tyranny, and priestly domination as 
the congregationalists of Massachusetts had represented 
them to be ; and on taking a nearer view of her bulwarks 
and her towers, many thousands throughout the State have 
been led to enter in; and to make her ordinances her 
security, and her peace their own portion, and the heritage 
of their children. 

The success of the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island 
has been mainly attributable, under God, to the faithful 
and persevering efforts of her ministering servants. The 
clergy have banded together as one man, and planted the 
standard of the cross in every part of the State. These 
indefatigable pioneers have left no place unvisited ; and 



136 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

whilst they have attracted numbers to the Church by their 
persuasive eloquence, they have held them there by their 
examples and holy lives. 

The distinguished individual whose name stands above 
was one of the first who commenced extending the borders 
of the Episcopal Church beyond the principal towns of 
Providence, Newport, and Bristol. His labours in a cause 
(in which his services are voluntary and unpaid) have been 
arduous and unceasing for more than twenty years. Rec- 
tor of a numerous and wealthy parish, and the popular 
preacher to a large congregation, his worldly interests made 
it unnecessary for him to extend a single effort beyond the 
bounds of his own city ; yet with the aid of several laymen 
of his congregation he effected the establishment of another 
parish in a neighbouring town. The incumbent of this new 
parish (the Rev. John Taft,) and another labourer who 
appeared in the field, viz., the Rev. John Bristed, rector of 
St. Michael's, Bristol, now joined Dr. Crocker in the work 
of domestic missions. One parish was organized after 
another : the completion of one church edifice was followed 
by laying the corner stone of a new one ; and the pious 
and disinterested originator of the efforts which have been 
so signally successful, has now the proud satisfaction of 
seeing every town in the State furnished with its parish 
temple, and its parish priest. 

St. John's Church, where Dr. Crocker still officiates, 
having been its rector forty-one years, is a venerable 
looking stone structure, with a square tower and pinnacles. 
In the interior good taste has preserved the arrangement 
of European churches. The doctor's preaching, though 
marked by little originality of thought, is of the popular 
order from the flowing style, and graceful delivery. 

Differing greatly in the latter characteristic from the rec- 
tor of St. John's, the Rev. Dr. Vinton, rector of Grace- 



PROVIDENCE PREACHERS. 137 

church* (another parish in Providence) possesses Chahiier's 
strength of reasoning and vehemence of style. Tlie latter 
has been carefully improved, as his sermons evidence in 
their purity of diction, copiousness, and terseness of expres- 
sion. It would be no unqualified praise to call him the 
Barrow of the American pulpit ; nor does he fall short of 
his great original in the vigour of his intellect or the fervour 
of his devotional ardour — while the peculiarties of Tillotson 
seemed, in an equal degree, to appertain to his cotemporary ; 
with whom, during the period of my residence in Provi- 
dence, he divided the palm of public favour. The com- 
parison of a discerning writer between the two English 
divines will not inaptly apply to doctors Crocker and Vin- 
ton : " While simplicity, languor and enervation charac- 
terize the productions of one, richness, vehemence and 
strength form the chief features in the diction of the other. 
To the former belong perspicuity and smoothness, verbal 
purity and unaffected ease ; to the latter, a fervid fancy, 
and a poetic ear, glowing figures, and harmonious cadences." 

* Since promoted to St. Paul's, Boston. 

9* 



CHAPTER XXII. 

COLLEGE EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Public attention in the United States has been much 
directed of late to the college system of that country ; 
which, in the opinion of many amongst her most eminent 
teachers, is open to several capital objections ; the same 
perhaps might be said of the British Universities, though 
the evils under which they labour are of a different kind. 

One of the evils deplored by Dr. Wayland president of 
Brown University, Providence, is common to both countries, 
viz., residence in the college, and boarding in common ; 
but the stricter discipline at Oxford and Cambridge relative 
to honrs, and general surveillance from superiors gives 
them an advantage in this particular, which the ope7i 
doors, and separate residence of the professors in an Amer- 
ican college are without. President Wayland is, however, 
opposed to the 'principle of the thing under the most vigi- 
lant restrictions. He regards it as equally unsuited, both 
to the yovmger students, and to those further advanced in 
years. The one it releases from the wholesome influence 
of home and friends, and the other it retains under a sys- 
tem of discipline incompatible with his age and habits. 
Residence likewise favours physical indolence, and engen- 
ders the lighter infectious diseases, while it excludes the 
comforts and attendance which sickness requires. 

But Dr. Wayland's principal objection to the present 
college system is the large amount of nominal study re- 



AMERICAN COLLEGE SYSTEM. 139 

quired. American schools require three times the amount 
of teaching within precisely the same time as formerly, 
and yet they do not send out graduates with half the real 
learning that they did before the revolution. The infer- 
ence is unavoidable that the knowledge acquired is more 
superficial. 

Dr. Wayland's own testimony to this fact in a pamphlet 
now lying before me, may be received with confidence as 
coming from a native professor, and one who deservedly 
enjoys as high a place m the estimation of his countrymen, 
as any public teacher in the United States. His remedy 
for the evil is to designate the exact amount of knowledge 
necessary for graduation, extending the term to five or six 
)'ears if required,— to enlarge the requirements for admis- 
sion, — and to limit the number of studies. West Point 
Military Academy is an example of the true system in this 
latter particular ; to which, and to the English Universities 
this candid writer points attention. " By learning one 
science well" he adds " we learn hoio to study, and how to 
master a subject. Having made this attainment in one 
study, we readily apply it to all other studies. We acquire 
the habit of thoroughness, and carry it to all other matters 
of enquiry. The course of study at West Point Academy 
is very limited, but the sciences pursued are carried much 
further than in other institutions in our country ; and it 
is owing to this that the reputation of the institution is so 
deservedly high. The English University course is, in 
respect to the number of branches pursued, limited ; and 
yet it is remarkably successful in developing the powers 
of the mind. Observe the maturity and vigour which the 
young men there frequently obtain. They sometimes go 
from the University — as, for instance, Pitt, Fox, and Can- 
ning — directly to the House of Commons, and are com- 



140 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

petent at once to take an important part in the labours of 
that august assembly." 

Dr. Wayland also recommends the English practice of 
written instead of oral examinations ; and that most effec- 
tive one of stimnlants to lite|i-ary attainments, in the form 
of premiums, fellowships, etc. 

A more important suggestion than either of the forego- 
ing relates to the professional study of pupils. Dr. W. 
proposes the creation of other degrees — such as Bachelor 
of Science, or of Literature ; a different course being em- 
braced by each ; also that the degree of master of arts be 
conferred only on those who have pursued successfully the 
whole circle of study marked out for the candidates for 
both degrees ; the affix would then designate a degree of 
positive attainment, which at present it does not. 

How far any of the suggestions of this honest and clear- 
headed writer and scholar will be acted upon, time will 
soon show. He is one of those men who have a great 
share in the work of directing the public mind, which even 
in enlightened republics " needs a prompter." His " Ele- 
ments of Moral Science" has taken the place of Paley in 
nearly every American College ; and among American 
authors is only equalled for closeness of thought and clear- 
ness of reasoning by his " Political Economy" likewise a 
text book in several universities. His independance and 
contempt of that kind of popularity so readily gained in 
republican communities by humouring every caprice, and 
appealing to nothing but the va^iity of the multitude is 
eloquently exhibited in the following sentiment : — 

" If we would be popular, let us remember that we can 
" never attain our end by aiming at it directly. The ap- 
" probation of our fellow citizens will in the end be confer- 
" red, not on those who desire to please them, but on those 



AMERICAN COLLEGE SYSTEM. 141 

"who honestly do them good. Popularity is valuable when 
" it follows us, not when we run after it : and he is most 
" sure of attaining it who, caring nothing about it, honest- 
" ly and in simplicity and kindness earnestly labours to ren- 
" der his fellow men wiser, and happier, and better." 



CHAPTER XXIll. 

PROVIDENCE. — OLNEYVILLE. WEST SMITHFIELD. 

FRUITS OF THE "VOLUNTARY SYSTEM." 

I RECEIVED my deacon's orders from Bishop Griswold on 
the 15th of March, 1837, previous to which and during a 
short ministerial career in Rhode Island I visited at differ- 
ent times almost every section and corner of the state ; 
and, therefore, brought away with me a tolerably correct 
knowledge of its geographical, political, religious and social 
features. It ^vill be no information to many readers to 
state that territorially Rhode Island is the smallest in 
the confederation ; though, as its citizens take care to 
remind the visitant from the old world, "much larger 
than many of the European sovereignties." The climate 
is perceptibly milder than that of the other New England 
states ; though, except on the Bay Islands already noticed, 
the soil is usually light, and requires much cultivation. 
Some parts of the state present a few natural beauties, but 
the scenery is generally tame. 

The city of Providence is almost equally divided by the 
Providence River, which is crossed by two bridges. The 
streets are generally Avell built ; many of them elegant. 
The east side has the largest number of private residences. 
It rises from the river, and at an elevated point stands the 
university, consisting of two ranges of buildings, with an 
elegant chapel in the centre. In the business or western 
section of the city, the arcade forms a distinguishing orna- 



OLNEYVILLE. — WEST SMITHFIELD. 143 

ment. It faces on two parallel streets, the fronts being 
ornamented with high columns whose shafts are each a 
single block of stone. 

At the head of Providence River, which is the mouth of 
another river by name rising in the north of the county, a 
considerable hydraulic power has given rise to some large 
manufactories for woollen and cotton goods. The village 
thus formed is called Olneyville, and is a pleasant walk 
from the city, presenting as you approach it by the turnpike 
road the appearance of great mechanical ingenuity in the 
midst of rural beauty. The first journey I made, after re- 
movhig to the state, was by this road. 

From Olneyville, where I spent several days in Christian 
intercourse with a beloved friend, the road leads directly to 
the principal towns in the west of the state. Several man- 
ufacturing villages were passed ; vegetable and fruit gar- 
dens disclosed their stores ; and the usual signs of cultiva- 
tion continued for twelve or fourteen miles, when the face 
of the country changes for a gravelly soil, and a broken 
surface, till West Smithfield is reached. Here a worthy 
baptist minister resided, with whom, during my residence 
in Rhode Island, I formed a close acquaintance. This 
meeting house, which was very commodious, occupied a 
square in the centre of the village, and was the only place 
of worship it could then boast. The "village preacher's 
modest mansion" stood in a shady lane leading from the 
main road, surrounded by his own land, of which he was 
the sole cultivator. Having the spiritual oversight of all 
the country within many miles of his dwelling, and deriving 
a bare support beyond what his farm produced, nearly all 
his time was occupied by parochial duties ; and his horse 
was in more constant requisition than the village doctor's. 
In addition to this charge he preached every alternate Sun- 
day at another village twelve miles distant when the meet- 



144 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ing house at Smithfield was closed. I give this as a fair 
illustration of the voluntary system : besides exhibiting the 
wretched parsimony with which the ministrations of the 
gospel are sometimes sustained, and the total inefficiency 
of non-episcopal ministrations to meet the spiritual wants 
of a large community. Here in one of the oldest, most 
thickly settled parts of the country — a region whose inhabi- 
tants think they enjoy extraordinary religious privileges — a 
population of about three thousand souls, besides a distant 
congregation, were wholly dependant on a single minister, 
to whom they allowed a stipend so small that, but for his 
farm (the portion of his wife,) it would not have supported 
him. 

The consequences of this mode of sustaining religion are 
— -just such as may he expected ! In this, and other agri- 
cultural districts which I have visited, the closed sanctuary 
on the returning sabbath drives the idle to the tavern and 
the industrious to the plough. Even in several parts of 
New England that day is not in any manner distinguished 
from the other days of the week. The farmer, surrounded 
by his labourers, is seen engaged in the customary labours 
of the field ; the farm-yard presents the usual busy scene ; 
flour and saw mills are going, stores and bar rooms are 
open, and all the avocations of business and pleasure go on 
as usual. 

But this is only a part of the evil. The absence of that 
oral instruction which the excessive cares of many country 
ministers, prevent them from communicating to their peo- 
ple is one, and but one among several circumstances which 
expose them to the ever ready approaches of infidelity and 
atheism. Add to these hindrances to the full establishment 
of Christianity, the perplexity caused by the number of sects,* 

♦ In America their name is legion. In Rhode Island alone there are thirty 
shades of relif;iou8 belief. 



WEST SMITHFIELD. 145 

conflicting in their views and modes — the incompetency 
of any one amongst them, from their imperfect systems 
of church government to make any united movement, 
still more for the whole to combine their strength, — and the 
small degree of reverence for the place and forms of reli- 
gion, which the extemporary mode of conducting worship 
fosters, and who can wonder at the result, which I give in 
the words of a writer in the New York " Churchman," — 
only reminding the reader that till lately, the episcopal 
Church exercised less influence in New England than in 
any other section of the Union. 

" I do not wish" writes this correspondent " to lessen the 
character of the New Englanders in the estimation of any 
of your readers ; there is much of real piety and just views 
of religion among them ; but I am convinced that, for some 
reason or other, infidelity has made rapid strides during the 
last twenty years, and that at present, not one half of the 
adult population are in the habit of attending any religious 
worship, or even belong to any Christian sect. I am able 
to state this from statistical facts, gathered by clergymen 
themselves, from different parts of the New England States. 
In conversation lately with a physician from a county in 
Connecticut, whose practice extends through nearly the 
whole county, and whose acquaintance with the people is 
not surpassed by any man in the state, he remarked, ' I am 
surprised to find how prevalent infidel opinions are among 
the farmers of Connecticut. It is very common to find the 
works of Paine, and other infidel writings making up near- 
ly the whole of their libraries, and with many, the French 
Philosophical Dictionary is a sort of ' Vade Mecum.' The 
metaphysics of divinity, and the fanaticism of the new 
school revivalists, have latterly tended to the rapid spread 
of sceptical notions ; and if things go on for the next fifty 
years as they have for the last twenty, Connecticut will be 

10 



146 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

as noted for its infidelity, as she has been in former days 
for puritanical strictness.' " 

The same testimony is borne by a sagacious writer* 
whose comments under this head have received high 
praise from several quarters in America for their correct- 
ness. I shall make no apology for transcribmg a portion 
of them. 

" Though every where in New England the greatest 
possible decency and respect, with regard to morals and 
religion is still observed, I have no hesitation in saying that 
I do not think the New Englanders (or, indeed, the Ameri- 
cans generally, as far as I can judge) a religious people. 
The assertion, I know, is paradoxical, but it is neverthe- 
less true ; that is, if a strong and earnest belief be a ne- 
cessary element in a religious character ; to me it seems to 
be its very essence and foundation. I am not now speak- 
ing of belief in the truth, but belief in something or any 
thing which is removed from the action of the senses. Now 
I appeal to any candid American whether it be not the re- 
ceived doctrine among nine-tenths of his countrymen, that 
creeds (religious dogmas, as they are called) are matters of 
no moment ; that, so long as a man acts sincerely up to 
what he believes he has as good a chance of salvation, for 
he is as likely to he right, as his neighbour ; and that 
morality (so called) is perfectly independent of, and infinite- 
ly more important than religious belief This is, I say, the 
avowed doctrine of the great majority now in America ; 
and as long as such is the case outward morality may, 
indeed, prevail to a great extent (and I freely admit that in 
no country have I seen more appearances of it than in New 
England), under the influence of traditionary habits, en- 
lightened self-interest, and the law of conscience, — but there 
is no religion. No man can be said to believe in a religi- 
* " Letters from America" by J. R. Godley Esq. 



WEST SMITHFIELD. 147 

Oils system if he believes at the same time that another 
rehgious system has an equal chance of being true in the 
points of difference which exist between them ; for all re- 
ligions profess to be (as to their distinctive tenets) exclu- 
sively true, and propound doctrines to be believed as ne- 
cessary to salvation : indeed, it is impossible to conceive a 
religion that should not do so ; such a course would be not 
only shallow and unphilosophical, but self-contradictory 
and suicidal. This is pre-eminently the case with respect 
to Christianity ; the apostolic epistles are filled with pas- 
sages which, had they been written by a modern theologian, 
would have been branded as most intolerant and unchari- 
table ; there they stand, however, witnessing against the 
indifferentism which I have described, proclaiming that if 
an angel from heaven preach any other gospel he shall be 
accursed ; and commanding us not even to bid ' God speed' 
to any that ' bring not this doctrine.' 

" I am not trusting to my own limited observation in ar- 
riving at this conclusion : I find in M. de Tocqueville's 
work an assertion of the same fact ; he accounts for it, in- 
deed, in a different way, and attributes it (like every thing 
else, according to his theory) to the operation of equality. 
I, on the contrary, am inclined to think that the material- 
ism thus admitted to exist may chiefly be traced to the pre- 
vailing indifference with respect to religious creeds ; and 
that this indifference, again, is intimately connected with 
the compulsory neutrality of the government in religious 
matters. In public schools, in the halls of the legisla- 
ture, in national institutions, all religions are placed upon 
an equality ; chaplains are selected indiscriminately from 
each, as the majority of the day may happen to deter- 
mine, (one year, perhaps a Roman Catholic, and the next a 
Unitarian) ; and the smallest preference of one religion to 
another, that is, the recognition of any definite, objective 



148 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

truth, would not be admitted for a moment. Now, this 
complete neutrality, entering as it does into so many parts 
of the system— every part, in fact, where men act in a cor- 
porate capacity — may be necessary ; indeed, I feel it quite 
impossible, under the actual circumstances of the United 
States, even to suggest an alteration or a remedy • but 
surely the effect upon the public mind must be very preju- 
dicial to earnestness and zeal ; and without earnestness 
and zeal religion is a name — a lifeless form ! 

" On the other hand, I am quite ready to admit that (as 
was, indeed, to be expected) there is little acrimony or bit- 
terness entering into religious controversy in America, 
Whether the absence of odium theologicum be attributable 
to indifference (as I think,) or to ' charity' (as an American 
would probably contend,) the effect is undoubted, and, pro 
tanto, highly desirable. Few things constitute a subject 
for more self-gratulatory contrasts to Americans than the 
mutual hostility and the proselytizing spirit of European 
sects, compared with the ' philosophical and comprehensive 
tone which is fashionable among religionists here.' For my 
part I prefer the earnest striving after truth, with its accom- 
panying evil, to the carelessness about it, with its accom- 
panying good. A party in Boston will comprise, generally, 
almost as many varieties of theological opinion as of indi- 
viduals ; and there will be no danger whatever of disagree- 
able discussions resulting therefrom. Not merely is the 
subject tacitly suppressed, or set aside, as forbidden ground, 
but there is none of that embarrassment and awkwardness 
which it is hardly possible to avoid in the habitual inter- 
course of parties who, upon subjects which they have very 
much at heart, entertain radically opposite opinions, and 
which actually do appear, here as elsewhere, under such 
circumstances. A man who would feel himself embarrass- 
ed and uncomfortable if his next neighbour differed from 



WEST SMITHFIELD. 149 

him on the subject of a national bank, and who would cer- 
tainly consider particular opinions about slavery as consti- 
tuting a sufficient cause for avoiding the society of the man 
who held them, would express the most supreme and con- 
temptuous indifference as to whether the rest of the party, 
with whom he was associating on the most intimate terms, 
were Christians or Mahometans, heretics or infidels. Is 
this habit reconcilable (I do not say in the case of every in- 
dividual, but generally) with a true view of the relative im- 
portance of temporal and eternal interests ? I have strong 
suspicions of the nature of that ' charity' which leads to 
tolerance and ' comprehensiveness' in religious matters 
alone, while upon all other subjects it leaves political ran- 
cour, party feeling, and personal hostility, untouched by its 
influence. 

" Again ; I never heard of a man taking a decidedly re- 
ligious tone in Congress, — that is, openly professing Chris- 
tian motives of action as influencing him in his legislative 
as well as his social capacity ; indeed, I have reason to 
think that such a profession would expose him to jealousy 
and suspicion, as savouring of bigotry. I hope very many 
do act from such motives ; but that pul)lic opinion cannot 
be in a healthy state, which would forbid their being 
avowed. America ought to ask herself why she has no 
such statesmen to boast of as a Wilberforce, a Gladstone, 
and man)^ others, who have not been ashamed to recognise 
publicly in the British House of Commons the existence of 
A LAW paramount to the code of political expediency, and 
to avow the duty of guiding their political career by its dic- 
tates. Where this is not the case — where either from in- 
difference or fear of offence, the members of the governing 
body in a state can consent to exclude, as inconvenient and 
out of place, all reference to those religious influences which 
ought to be continually present to their recollection, per- 



150 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

vading and colouring every part of their moral being, there 
is imminent danger lest that state should sink to the level 
of a joint-stock company, combined for the mere purpose 
of securing the material interests of the partners, and po- 
litical science, the iinaTfi^ti apxirsKTovUri, be reduced there to 
the possession of a certain amount of economical knowl- 
edge and administrative dexterity." 

The rapid increase of episcopal churches, and episcopal 
influence in Connecticut, and throughout the eastern states, 
might allay the apprehensions of this writer. The healing 
and " ancient regimen of bishops," and an evangelical lit- 
urgy, will save Christianity, and preserve its purity too, 
amidst any influence, infidel or heretical, from without. 
Both were divinely appointed in the Church for this very 
purpose, and will yet prove the conservative leaven which 
will rescue New England from utter defection.* 

* To this a Yankee preacher (of the congregational sect) bears his unwilling 
testimony. The late Dr. Bellamy of Bethlem, remarked when a Church con- 
gregation was gathered in his town, " I care nothing for this or that sect, which 
coming up in a night will perish in a night ; but once get that peshj weed of 
episcopacy in a place, and you can never root it out!" 

" Can we suppose," writes Mr. Franklin (of Newark, Delaware) in his pop- 
ular treatise on the Church liturgy, "that the unitarian preachers who wrought 
a change in the doctrinal sentiments of a large body of the congregational 
Church in New England, which is without a liturgy, could with any conscience 
or success have continued their operations in a Church which required them 
week after week to address the person of the Triune God — to declare their de- 
pendence on the atoning sacrifice of Christ for pardon, — and on the influence 
of the Holy Ghost for their spiritual life "? A part, too, if not the whole of the 
presbyterian sect in England, stabs at the divinity and denies the atonement of 
Jesus Christ. Had these bodies been blessed with an evangelical liturgy, the 
ministers who dissented from those grand doctrines which form the Christian's 
hope, would in all probability, if at all conscientious, have ceased to promulgate 
their views in connection with them, and thus have diminished their influence 
in the spread of their heresy. The most efiicient method then of maintaining 
the doctrines of Christian truth in the creed of a church, is the incorporation of 
them in a liturgy for public worship, to the use of which the minister is bound. 
The grand doctrines of the gospel are thus necessarily presented to the minds 



CHEPACHET. 151 

Pursuing the road to Chepachet the country somewhat 
improves in appearance, and the farms bear marks of good 
cuhivation. Chepachet, (since the scene of a civil insurrec- 
tion,) stands on a river of that name, and contains about a 
thousand inhabitants. The kindness and hospitahty of a 
number of friends in this village and neighbourhood du- 
ring a protracted visit amongst them, will always be re- 
membered with gratitude. 

of the people, and the minister who forsakes and opposes them will betray his 
inconsistency to others, or be compelled by conscience to leave the church to 
whose doctrines he cannot conform." 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

RHODE ISLAND CONVOCATIONS. 

It is the practice of the Rhode Island clergy to meet in 
monthly " convocation" for the purpose of deliberating on 
the general state of the Church within the borders of the 
state, and to devise measures for its extension. It was un- 
der the fostering care of this Convocation that the greater 
number of the parishes rose into being, and by it weak or 
declining parishes are upheld. Amongst other means used 
to sustain the influence and efficiency of the clerical office, 
a fund exists, to which the respective members pledge 
sums proportionate to the value of their own cures, out of 
which the incomes of clergymen having poor congrega- 
tions, or occupying missionary posts in the state, are raised 
to the fixed amount of five hundred dollars if married men, 
and three hundred if single. This clerical society, though 
originating with several presbyters, had from the com- 
mencement of its operations the full countenance and aid 
of the late venerable bishop, and is sanctioned by the pres- 
ent diocesan.* 

These meetings are judiciously held at every parish in 
the diocess in turn. At the first I attended, which was con- 
vened at Woonsocket in the north of the state, the proceed- 
ings commenced with a clerical prayer-meeting at the rec- 
tory, when appropriate prayers from Bishop Griswold's ad- 

* The Rt. Rev. Dr. Henshaw. 



RHODE ISLAND CONVOCATIONS. 153 

mirable collection of offices " for which provision is not 
made in the Book of Common Prayer" were used ; after 
which the session was opened by the president (Dr. Crock- 
er). The secretary then read the minutes of the last ses- 
sion, and the usual business was prosecuted till the hour 
for dinner, when the clergy were elegantly entertained at 
the house of the senior churchwarden ; whence an adjovirn- 
ment was made to the church, where full service was held, 
and a sermon preached by Dr. Vinton. Another service 
was held in the evening, when the Rev. James Pratt, rector 
of Westerly, preached. Mr. Pratt is a native of the 
south, an effective preacher, and one of the most indefati- 
gable labourers in the American field. He has since the 
period of which I write received promotion to the important 
parish of St. Stephen's, Portland, Maine. 

On each succeeding day the order of proceedings was 
nearly the same. The Convocation transacted business, af- 
ter early matins in the church, dming the morning, and 
held public service in the afternoon and evening;* the duties 
of the altar and pulpit being divided between the attending 
clergy. The church was filled on each occasion, and great 
excitement was manifested to hear the closing sermon by 
the eloquent rector of St. Michael's, Bristol, 

During the intervals of worship, I took several walks in 
the town and neighbourhood. It lies on the Blackstone 
River, where there are falls of about twenty feet, keeping 
seventeen factories for satinet and cotton in operation. The 
situation of this handsome and populous town, and the 
quiet beauty of the scenery in the neighbourhood draw 
many visitors to it every summer. The Rev. Henry Water- 

* I use these terms in accommodation to a custom of questionable propriety ; 
the Evening Prayer of the Church being designed for the evening (i. e. sun 
dovyn) and no later. For a public night service only particular diocesses have 
provided any form. 



154 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

man, then rector of the parish, has since been removed to 
the charge of St. Stephen's in Providence. 

The next meeting of the Convocation I attended was 
shortly after my taking Holy Orders, when I was admitted 
to membership, and appointed to a station, recently organ- 
ized as a distinct parish. The bishop, on his way from a 
southern visitation of the diocess, gave it by his presence a 
character of unusual interest ; especially as his coming en- 
gagements threatened to lengthen the period of his expected 
absence from that part of it. As the chief pastor descend- 
ed from the pulpit after the closing sermon and the apos- 
tolic benediction, he was surrounded by his clergy and 
many of the congregation, with each of whom he exchang- 
ed a cordial farewell. Like another sainted father of the 
American Church, bishop Griswold's exhortations and ex- 
ample " proved as powerful incentives to the zeal and dil- 
igence of the clergy under his episcopal superintendance. 
He was the centre of attraction, and the instrument of bless- 
edness and joy in his diocess. Wherever he went he 
was received with marked tokens of veneration and love : 
and even at an advanced period of life, when most men 
desire repose from public duty he was always ready to 
preach the Gospel, and to labour for the salvation of 
souls."* 

They cluster'd round, that listening throng, 

The parting hour drew nigh, 
And heighten'd feeling deep and strong. 

Spoke forth from eye to eye. 

For reverend in his hoary years, 

A white robed prelate bent. 
And trembling pathos winged his words. 

As to the heart they went. 



* Bishop Henshaw's life of the late Bishop of Virginia, p. 303. 



RHODE ISLAND CONVOCATIONS. 155 

He breathed the blessing of his God 

And full of meekness said ; 
" Be faithftd in your master's work 

When your old bishop's dead. 

" For more than fifty year, my sons, 

A Saviour's love supreme 
Unto a sinful world hath been 

My unexhausted theme. 

"Now see the blossoms of the grave 

Are o'er my temples spread, 
Oh ! lead the seeking soul to him 

When your old bishop's dead." 

Full many a sleeper mid his dream, 

Beheld in snowy stole, 
That patriarch-prelate's stately form* 

Whose accents stirr'd the soul. 

The boats that ask nor sail nor oar, 

With speed majestic glide, 
And many a thoughtful pastot leans 

In silence o'er their side. 

And while he seems to scan the flood 

In silver 'neath him spread, 
Revolves the charge "i?e strong for God 

When your old bislwp's dead." 

* The authoress must pardon the alteration of a word, well applied to the 
venerable Bishop Moore, to whom this — part only of a beautiful poem by Mrs. 
Sigourney — originally referred ; Bishop Griswold having been remarkable for 
his erect form till his death. 



CHAPTER XXV. 



MY FIRST PARISH. 



In " the boat that asks nor sail nor oar," by which I pro- 
ceeded the following day to my first parish of Jamestown, 
(the township name of Cannanicut Island,) was an estima- 
ble brother minister named De Wolf, now labouring- in 
Illinois under Bishop Chase, with whom I maintained a 
frequent and most fraternal intercourse during my occu- 
pancy of Jamestown. His parish was on the west side of 
Narragansett Bay, (an old station established by the Ven- 
erable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) reached, 
as was Newport, by ferries which constantly plied between 
Cannanicut and the main land. 

The first Sunday I performed duty in the church I was 
somewhat surprised at the good attendance of the people, 
having formed my expectations from the scattered appear- 
ance of the dwellings and the distance of many of them 
from the sanctuary. On reaching it I found a good num- 
ber arrived ; and as the hour for service approached, 
chaises, waggons, and saddle horses set down their differ- 
ent owners, while a few stray parties of pedestrians swelled 
the concourse who gathered round me, and to all of whom 
I was successively made known by the old churchwarden. 
I was also gratified at finding my island congregation very 
ready in performing their part of the service, and closely 
attentive during the sermon. 

I soon learnt that the good attendance at church arose 



MY FIRST PARISH. 157 

from there being no other place of worship, except a small 
chapel for quakers, in the island. — The parish was in fact 
one of those fruit bearing branches of the tree planted 
in North America by " the Venerable Society" before men- 
tioned. Here the Rev. Mr. McSparran, an English mis- 
sionary sent out in 1719, officiated alternately with other 
stations on the Narragansett shore, ministering to a district 
of country which is now supplied with twelve churches, 
and the same number of clergymen. Wherever I went 
I found traces or records of his assiduous labours. In 
the old parish church on Tower Hill, supplied at this time 
by my friend De Wolf, is the original parish register in Mr. 
McSparran's hand writing, and a quantity of interesting 
documents ; evidences of his industry and carefulness. 
He was sustained, with the first rectors of Providence, 
Newport,* and Bristol, till the war of the Revolution by the 
Society ; and from these the Church in Rhode Island has 
risen to its present position, with twenty-three churches and 
clergymen, and an independent episcopate.! 

It is an opinion which I have often heard expressed, and 
of the truth of which my observation during eleven years' 
residence in the United States thoroughly convinces me, 
that if ultimately saved from the worst eflfects of the licen- 
tious and disorganizing elements unhappily at work it will 
be from the counteracting and conservative influence of 

* The Rev. James Honeyraan, was rector of Newport from 1704 to 1749. 

t To estimate the amount of good accompHshed by this veteran society, the 
oldest missionary society in the world — would be impossible ! It now supports 
three hundred missionaries. If any society have a strong claim on the liberal 
contributions of the church's friends, it is this parent association ; especially 
when it is remembered that in Canada West alone there are 240 townships, each 
equal to twenty average English parishes without one clergyman of the church! ! 
In Australia the bishop visited three entire counties, in which there- is neither 
minister nor ordinance of religion,— Messrs. Glyn and Co., are th'e London 
bankers of the society. 



158 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

THAT CHURCH, wliich (despite all the opposition it has 
now to encounter,) is growing up so strong within its bor- 
ders ; and every year uprooting in its course the weeds of 
error and schism. How manifest will be the controling 
Providence which in this way promises to make the Church 
of England the instrument of preserving the political ex- 
istence of the country which the oppression of the civil 
government of England has separated from her ; and how 
signally will tlie support of the Church Apostolic be thus 
proved to be essential to national life. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE EASTERN DIOCESS, AND 
FAREWELL OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The act of parliament passed at Westminster in the 
twenty-sixth year of the reign of George the Third, King of 
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, entitled " An act to 
empower the Archbishop of Canterbmy, or the Archbishop 
of York, for the time being, to consecrate to the office of a 
bishop, persons being subjects or citizens of countries out of 
his majesty's dominions" was so little known, or so little 
heeded in some of its restrictive provisions till another and 
a more catholic-framed statute was substituted in its place 
by the British legislature in 1840, that most persons were 
either ignorant of its very existence, or regarded it as a 
dead letter. One American ordained clergyman* was re- 
ceived through his dimissary into an English diocess, and 
presented to a living ; and all visiting England received in- 
vitations to preach, or otherwise officiate in the cathedrals 
and parish churches without restriction. I had taken or- 
ders in ignorance of the statute, and in the autumn of 1837, 
urged by a desire to see my family, neither of whom could 
be persuaded to join me in America, I consulted Bishop 
Griswold on the step of changing my ecclesiastical relations 
by joining the English Church, should I determine on re- 
maining in my native land. The bishop's answer was un- 
favourable, though he added that what had been done 
* Dr. G. E. Winslowe. 



160 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

(mentioning Mr. Winslowe's case) might he supposed be re- 
peated, especially as the existing restrictions in England on 
American clergymen were unpopular with our clerical 
brethren of England. I asked him if he would give me a 
letter ? He said that he would, if I called the next morn- 
ing for it ; and that if I failed in my application for priest's 
orders in England, he should be glad to welcome me back 
to his diocess. 

The next day I received a letter dimissory from the bish- 
op, when he renewed the expression of his best wishes for 

my success. He added, however, "Dr. C and Mr. 

H speak very highly of your success in Rhode Island, 

and I think you had better just visit your family, and re- 
turn to this country where we are much in want of cler- 
gymen." 

On the following Wednesday (Sept. 27th) the Conven- 
tion of the Eastern diocess assembled in Grace church New 
Bedford, when the question of electing an assistant to the 
bishop was for the first time brought regularly before the rep- 
resentatives of the diocess. Out of various propositions 
which had been warmly discussed since the convention of 
1836, the bishop gave his preference to the one of New 
Hampshire and Maine withdrawing, and becoming separate 
diocesses ; leaving him in charge of Massachusetts and 
Rhode Island. The Rhode Island clergy seemed, however, 
to desire an episcopate of their own, and the controversy af- 
terwards ripened into a fruitful source of bitterness and 
party feeling, which in a special convention of the Rhode 
Island diocess subsequently held, was pointedly and severe- 
ly rebuked by the venerable bishop, who feared not the face 
of man. 

On the 30th of September I took my leave of Newport, 
and New England, though not without lingering several 



IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ENGLAND. IGl 

days after the time at first fixed for my departure with my 
excellent, never to be forgotten, friends in Newport, amongst 
whom the pen involuntarily traces the honoured names of 
Hazard, Collins, Whitehorne, Gilliott, Van Zandt, and 
Mumford, while the memory treasures the recollection of 
many others. 

My impressions of New England from nearly four years 
acquaintance with its shrewd and intelligent people are so 
correctly expressed in the following lines by Halleck, that I 
can only endorse them, and add that the portraiture, though 
partially drawn in the last stanza, presents some striking 
points of resemblance. 

'Tis a rough land of earth, and stone and tree, 
Where breathes no castled lord, or cabin'd slave ; 

Where thoughts and tongues, and hands are bold and free, 
And friends will find a welcome, foes a grave : 

And where none kneel, save when to Heaven they pray, 

Nor even then, unless in their own way. 

A justice of the peace, for the time being 

They bow to, but may turn him out next year; 
They reverence their priest, but disagreeing 

In price or creed, dismiss him without fear ; 
They have a natural talent for foreseeing, 

And knowing all things — and should Park appear 
From his long tour in Africa, to show 
The Niger's source, they'd meet him with — " We know 1" 

They love their land because it is their own. 

And scorn to give all other reason why ; 
Would shake hands with a king upon his throne, 

And think it kindness to his majesty ; 
A stubborn race, fearing and flattering none. 

Such are they nurtured, such they Uve and die, — 
All but a few apostates, who are meddling 
With merchandize, pounds, shiUings, pence and pedling ; 

But these are but their outcasts, view them near 
At home where all their worth and pride is placed ; 
11 



162 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

And there their hospitable fires burn clear, 

And there the lowliest farm-house hearth is graced 

With many hearts in piety sincere, 

Faithful in love, in honour stern and chaste, 

In friendship warm and true, in danger brave, 

Beloved in life, and sainted in the grave. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. — RETROSPECT. 

ENCOURAGING PROSPECT. 

Strange as the assertion may appear, there is no sec- 
tion of the United States where the episcopal Church is 
making more rapid progress, or where there are more 
agencies to assist its progress than in the New England 
States. Amongst all classes the old " orthodoxy" of the 
puritans and their successors has long grown into very gen- 
eral disrepute ; and it was the opinion of the late Bishop 
Griswold that had not the teachers of the Socinian heresy 
substituted their system in its place, the church would 
now embrace the largest proportion of the wealth and in- 
telligence of the community — which it will, notwithstand- 
ing, at no distant day. 

It is almost the universal testimony of those attending 
" unitarian" places of Avorship throughout New England, 
and one that I have repeatedly heard expressed, that their 
principal objection to the old order of ministers is their 
manner of presenting the truth, and their habit of dwelling 
on two or three topics to the exclusion of others equally 
important ; added to the imnatural system of restraint, and 
of " will-worship" which they impose on their flocks. The 
subtleties of any particular doctrine, whether relating to the 
number of persons in the Godhead or what not, (which few 
of the younger members of " unitarian" congregations un- 
derstand or care about) has Uttle or nothing to do with 



164 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

their preference. These, as they settle in the world, fre- 
quently become " universalists," another step towards infi- 
delity, — or avowed deists. Thus we see that an imper- 
fect ecclesiastical government thoiigh classed in the "lib- 
eral" phrase of the day, amongst " the non-essentials," 
and regarded as quite a "minor" point of difference, exposes 
the Christian community to the inroads of infidelity and 
atheism. 

How few of the advocates for the congregational system 
are aware of the historical fact that their great progenitor, 
John Calvin, as well as the founder of methodism, both ad- 
mitted the divine institution of episcopacy, and its superi- 
ority as a mode of Church government, and were both the 
advocates of liturgical worship. In his commentary on the 
apostolic Epistle to the Bishop of Crete, Calvin writes : — 
" We learn from this place that there was not then an 
EQUALITY among the ministers of the Church ; but that 
some one had the pre-eminence in authority and coun- 
sel." 

Again " It is highly probable that St. James was prefect 
of the Church of Jerusalem."* 

Again " He who is made a bishop proceeds from God 
himself. The office of episcopacy was established by the 
authority, and regulated by the laws of GodJ^t 

" But Calvin did not engraft episcopacy on the reformed 
continental Churches" will be the reply. "He gave up 
prelacy for the doctrines of the gospel." 

True ! so far as the first part of the statement goes ; and 
how far his example justifies the advocates of ministerial 
parity in this day may be judged by the other historical 
fact, that with Bullinger and his fellow reformers he sought 
episcopacy for the continental Churches from the English 

* Com. on Gal. ii. 9. 

t Letter to a friend — DurcU's View of the For. Ref. Churches, p. 162. 



THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 165 

prelates, which scheme was frustrated by Bishops Bonner 
and Gardiner, much to the grief afterwards of Queen 
Ehzabeth !* 



* The following is from Strype's Life of Archbishop Parker p. 138 etc. 

" And this is the account of the popish clergy's letter to the archbishop, and 
his behaviour thereon. There was another letter this year sent to him from the 
hands of a great divine, but of another temper and for another and better end : 
namely from John Calvin, the great Reformer, importing, how he rejoiced in 
the happiness of England ; and that God had raised up so gracious a Queen to 
be instrumental in propagating the true faith of Jesus Christ, by restoring the 
gospel and expelling idolatry, together with the Bishop of Rome's usurped be 
power. And then made a serious motion of uniting Protestants together, [as he 
had done before in King Edward's reign.] He entreated the archbishop to pre- 
vail with Her Majesty to summon a general assembly of all the Protestant clergy, 
wheresoever dispersed ; and that a set form and method [i. e. of Public Service, 
and Government of the Church] might be established, not only within her 
dominions, but also among all the Reformed and Evangelic Churches abroad. 
[Anno 1560.] 

" This was a noble offer; and the archbishop soon acquainted the Q,ueen's 
council with it. And they took it mto consideration, and desired His Grace to 
thank Calvin, and to let him know that they liked his proposals, which were 
fair and desirable ; yet, as to the government of the Church, to signify to him 
that the Church of England would still retain her episcopacy. This was a great 
woa-k, and created serious thoughts in the archbishop's mind, for the framing a 
proper manner to set it on foot. But he had considered but a little while of 
these matters when news arrived at court that Calvin was dead. 

" And how Calvin stood affected in the said point of episcopacy, and how 
readily and gladly he and other heads of the Reformed Churches would have 
received it, is evident enough from his writings and epistles. In his book " Of 
the Necessity of Reforming the Church" he hath these words: "Talem nobis 
hierarchiam exhibeant," &c. " Let them give us such an hierarchy, in which 
bishops may be so above the rest, as they refuse not to be under Christ, and 
depend upon Him as their only head; that they maintain a brotherly society, 
&c. If there be any that do not behave themselves with all reverence and obe- 
dience towards them there is no anathema, but I confess them worthy of it!" 
But especially his opinion of episcopacy is manifest from a letter he and Bullin- 
ger, and others, learned men of that sort, wrote, anno 1549, to King Edward 
"VI. offering to make him their defender, and to have bishops in their Churches 
for better unity and concord among them : as may be seen in Archbishop Cran- 
mer's Memorials; and likewise by a writing of Archbishop Abbot, found among 



166 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

"Calvin," writes his friend Monsieur Daille, "honoured 
all bishops that were not subjects of the pope; such as 
were the prelates of England. We confess that the foun- 



the MSS. of Archbishop Usher; which, for the remarkableness of it, and the 
mention of Archbishop Parker's papers, I shall here set down ; 

" Perusing some papers of our predecessor, Matthew Parker, we find that 
" John Calvin and others of the Protestant Churches of Germany and elsewhere, 
"would have had episcopacy if permitted; but could not, upon several ac- 
" counts, partly fearing the other princes of the Roman Catholic faith would 
" have joined the emperor and the rest of the popish bishops, to have depressed 
" the same ; partly being newly reformed, and not settled, they had not sufficient 
" wealth to support episcopacy, by reason of their daily persecutions. Another, 
" and a main cause, was, that they would not have any popish hands laid over 
" their clergy. And whereas John Calvin had sent a letter, in King Edward 
" the VI. 's reign, to have conferred with the clergy of England about some 
" things to this effect, two bishops, viz. Gardiner and Bonner, intercepted the 
"same; whereby Mr. Calvin's offerture perished ; and he received an answer, 
" as if it had been from the reformed divines of those times, wherein they checked 
" liim and slighted his proposals ; from which time John Calvin and the Church 
" of England were at variance in several points : which, otherwise, through 
"God's, mercy, had been qualified, if those papers of his proposals had been 
" discovered unto the Queen's Majesty during John Calvin's life. But being 
" not discovered until or about the sixth year of her Majesty's reign. Her Ma- 
" jesty much lamented they were not made sooner ; which she expressed before 
"her Council at the same time, in the presence of her great friends, Sir Henry 
" Sydney and Sir William Cecil." 

Nor does Calvin stand alone, with respect to the general proposition, as to 
the necessity of maintaining episcopacy. Mclancthon has thus affirmed — "I 
know not with what face we can refuse bishops, if they will suffer us to have 
purity of doctrine." 

"Peter Bucer another presbyterian, wrote thus: " By the perpetual observ- 
ance of the Church, even from the apostles themselves, we see it seemed good 
to the Holy Ghost that among the presbyters to whom the charge of the 
Chur(-h is especially committed, one should have the singular charge of the 
Church, and in that charge and state govern others : for which reason the name 
of BISHOP was conferred upon these chief governors of the Church." 

" Chamier, a French Protestant divine, Professor of Divinity at Montaubon, 
and who drew up the edict of Nantes, having admitted that immediately after 
the decease of the apostles, "began the difference between a bishop and a pres- 
byter," adds immediately, as if correcting himself:—" What ! the thing itself be- 



THE CHURCH IN NEW ENGLAND. 167 

dation of their charge is good and lawful, established by 
the apostles according to the command of Christ^ 

And Calvin himself writes again, " If they will give us 



gan in the very time of the Apostles, or rather proceeded from them." — {Mills 
History of the Christian Priesthood, Page 336.) 

" Another Presbyterian, Le Clerc, the Dutch Arminian divine, and eulogist of 
the learned layman Grotius says "I have always professed to believe that epis- 
copacy is of Apostolical Institution, and consequently, very good and very law- 
ful ; that man had no manner of right to change it in any place, unless it was 
impossible otherwise to reform the abuses that crept into Christianity ; that it 
was justly preserved in England, where the Reformation was practicable with- 
out alterincr it: that, therefore, the protestants in England, and in other places, 
where there are bishops, do very ill to separate from that discipline ; and they 
would do still worse in attempting to destroy it, in order to set up presbytery, 
fanaticism, and anarchy. Things ought not to be turned into a chaos, nor peo- 
ple seen everywhere, without a call, and without learning, pretending to inspi- 
ration. Nothing is more proper to prevent them than episcopal discipline, as by 
law established in England ; especially when those that preside in Church gov- 
ernment are persons of penetration, sobriety, and discretion " 

" And he further says, " — They who without prejudice read what remains of 
the most ancient Christian writers, know well enough that the episcopal form 
of Church government, such as it is in the southern parts of Great Britain, ob- 
tained every where in the next age after the Apostles, whence we may collect 
that it is an Apostolic institution." 

" To these I add finally the testimony of M. Le Moyne, a preacher to the 
Reformed congregation at Rouen, who says — " Truly I believe it is impossible 
to keep peace or order in your Church without preserving episcopal dignity. I 
confess I know not by what spirit they are led, that oppose that government 
and cry it down with such violence ; for, I beseech you let us not flatter our- 
selves in France, where we have a presbyterian government, that we are not 
subject to many divisions, which the equality of pastors is not able to compose ; 
and which a synod consisting of equal persons, and of elders and deacons who 
have often but little skill in ecclesiastical government, is not able to stop ; be- 
cause the authors of the evil hold themselves to be of equal power with those 
that are of prime note and despise them that are ordinarily employed to heal 
those distempers. It is episcopacy which upholds the Lutheran Churches ; for 
in Denmark, and Sweden, they are very quiet under episcopal discipline, and 
seldom are seen to slander and tear each other. — Froin the Rev. F. A. Glover's 
Patriarchaie." 

M. Le Moyne's opinion would have been strengthened had he lived to 



168 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES, 

an hierarchy in which the bishops have such a pre-eminence 
as that they do not refuse to be subject unto Christ &c., 
then I will confess that they are worthy of all anathemas^ 
if any such shall be found, who will not reverence it, and 
submit themselves to it with the utmost obedience."* 

Strong language this, which no English churchman I 
think, even under the shadow of Oxford (Avhich can hardly 
be supposed to be more moderate than Geneva on the sub- 
ject of episcopacy) would be found to employ. 

Yet what has been the history of the Church in Switzer- 
land ? — what is the present degree of doctrinal purity in 
Geneva? Has it extended beyond its first borders, and 
planted the standard of the Cross in other parts of the 
world ! Alas no ! — " It has done nothing to spread the 
knowledge of a Redeemer beyond its own limits — it has 
utterly failed to sustain luithin itself the saving doctrines 
of the Gospel."t 

Nor can I forbear adding the testimony of one of NeAV 
England's sons,| on the history and present aspect of Con- 
gregationalism in those states, and throughout America '.^- 

" How has the faith of the gospel been preserved in the 
keeping of the Congregationalist Church here ? In what 
part of this great nation has it planted itself out of New 
England? What have been the fruits of its production? 
I must here premise, that I have it not in my heart to say 
one word that should give just offence to this respectable 
denomination. I have in it friends I exceedingly love and 
respect ; I honour and admire the piety and zeal for reli- 

witness the present state of religious parties in Scotland and Switzerland. — 
Author. 

* De Necessitate Reformandarum Ecclesiarum. 

t The Hon. Edward Newton of Boston. 

X lb. In a speech before the American Church Board of Missions, at Grace 
Churchj Boston. 



THE HON. MR. NEWTON. 169 

gion, so many among it have exhibited ; but I cannot close 
my eyes upon the defectiveness, and mischievous workings 
of its system, and, on an occasion Hke the present, when I 
am called upon to enforce the claims of the Church of 
which I am a member, it is both my right, and my duty, to 
show its superiority, as well by contrast and comparison, as 
by the exhibition of its own inherent merits. I must not, 
therefore, be charged with wilful and unnecessary offence, 
in the prosecution of a warrantable and legitimate object. 
I entertain no unkindly feeling towards any body of Chris- 
tians upon earth. 

" The origin of the Congregational Church in this coun- 
try is well known ; fleeing, professedly from persecution in 
the old world, it established itself in the new, and closed 
forthwith the door against every competitor. It brought to 
its aid the entire strength of the civil power, and the no 
less powerful agency of prejudice and resentment ; though 
a fugitive itself from alleged persecution, it became a stern 
and unhesitating persecutor of others, and that too, in a 
day of extended light and liberality. Nevertheless it could 
not, and it has not extended itself beyond its original 
limits ; it could not and it has not maintained entire its 
doctrines and authority therein ; it has given way, by de- 
grees, to every species of attack, until made to swarm with 
almost every imaginable error. Notwithstanding its as- 
sumed claims to scriptural authority, notwithstanding its 
possession of the exclusive influence of the civil power to 
enforce its claims, it has declined, and manifests increasing 
symptoms of still further decay. How seldom do we hear 
of a new " orthodox congregational church" being erected 
in any of our towns ! — who witnesses this denomination ex- 
tending itself in any part of our broad dominion out of 
New England ? — Can such an instrumentality, then, be of 
divine appointment? Again, has she preserved — does she 



170 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

maintain uniformly, her own original standards of faith ? — 
Look at her " Covenant," established in this very city in 
the year 1680, after most mature deliberation, and inquire 
who acknowledges it now, or if any of its individual mem- 
bers do, who preach it from the pulpit ? — Who maintains it 
publicly ? — Who is honest enough, and bold enough to 
dare to do so ? — Can such be the accredited agent of a 
Master, the same yesterday, to-day and forever, with 
whom is no variableness, nor shadow of tui'ning 7 The 
age of miracles is past ; the age for God's direct interposi- 
tion in the affairs of men is alike gone by ; he intends 
now, as is most apparent, to accomplish all his designs on 
the earth through human agency ; he has done all by di- 
rect revelation to his vineyard that can be done for it ; and 
now it remains for men to work out the appointed salva- 
tion, always in entire dependence upon divine grace. Will 
a weak and inefficient confederacy then, such as the con- 
gregational society is, be competent to such a service ? — 
Has the like been effectual for any great and good end, for 
any length of time even ? No, sir, it cannot ! — it may en- 
dure for awhile, and do good for a short period in particu- 
lar states of society, as we have seen it do — but to accom- 
plish and sustain permanent, lasting good, other systems 
are necessary. This may be shown by a reference to 
facts : — Fifty years ago there were as many " orthodox 
congregational" ministers in this commonwealth as there 
are now. I have no means of procuring a precise and en- 
tirely accurate statement on this head, but I have reason to 
think I am much within the limits of the truth in this par- 
ticular, because I hear it frequently and confidently affirmed, 
that one-half of the churches of this order that were or- 
thodox fifty years ago are the reverse now. — Then let it be 
considered that, within fifty years the population of this 
commonwealth has more than doubled. During this time, 



THE HON. MR. NEWTON. 171 

this sect has put forth all its energies to sustain itself. It 
has organized innumerable agencies to suit its ends- 
caused the laws of the commonwealth to be modified to 
render itself more popular,~effected the repeal of that 
most righteous article of our constitution, which compelled 
every man to support the public worship of Almighty God 
according to his abihty, because it seemed to operate 
against its influence, — promoted those religious excitements 
which have led to such frightful extravagancies, and left 
such fearful results in their train. Still its object is unat- 
tained : it does not increase either in tmmbcrs, or in 
power, or in spirituality, but the reverse. Sir, it gives me 
no pleasure to lay these statements before you. I do it 
only under a strong sense of duty, and for just and high 
considerations. 

" Compare now the Episcopal Church through the same 
period. Fifty years ago, the Episcopal Church out of one 
or two of the Southern states, had hardly any existence in 
this country ; there were in the whole nation then, one 
hundred and seventy of its clergy only. While in this 
period, the population of the country has more than dou- 
bled, and Congregationalism has not advanced one step, the 
Episcopal Church has added o?ie thousa7id to the number 
of its clergy. While Congregationalism is confined within 
the narrow limits of New England, the Episcopal Church 
has posted itself over the whole length and breadth of the 
land, and is daily and almost hourly increasing. While 
congregationalists are divided and at variance among them- 
selves, she is united and harmonious. — She cannot he divi- 
ded. What she believed and taught in 1680, and from the 
period of the Reformation, she believes and teaches now, 
and nothing beside ; no essential error in doctrine or prac- 
tice has followed in her footsteps. She is subject to a firm 
and decided, though mild and moderate government, — one 



172 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

of written laws, founded in reason and experience, just and 
wise, complete in all its parts. She has a sound and scrip- 
tural liturgy, faithfully guarded against sudden and im- 
proper changes, which all the Christian world admires. 
She has also equally well guarded, fixed and approved ar- 
ticles of faith, which every intelligent orthodox Christian 
admits to be scriptural. She has a body of clergy inferior 
to none in the country for wisdom, piety, and learning ; 
and, where her churches have gone beyond the point of 
struggle for existence, she exhibits the most delightful evi- 
dences of sound religious character in her members ; and 
even within the circumscribed influence of her body in our 
own diocess — yet in the very spring-time of its existence — 
her salutary influence on other denominations, by the so- 
briety, order and intelligence she manifests, is most deci- 
sive. Add to all this, she is the most tolerant, mild, and 
forbearing, towards those who differ from her, of any known 
body of Christians on the earth. Can we desire better evi- 
dences of her being owned and blessed of God ? 

" This prodigious increase in the numbers and influence 
of the Episcopal Church in these United States, it behoves 
her members most seriously to ponder. It has been wrought 
in parts seemingly most unfavourable to it, — to wit, in Vir- 
ginia and in New England. In the former, through the 
influence of infidel politicians, and the unfaithfulness of 
the colonial clergy, the Church there, though powerful be- 
fore the war of the Revolution, became afterwards almost 
extinct. When the late lamented Bishop Moore became its 
chief shepherd, about twenty-seven years ago, there were 
less than ten eff'ective clergymen in that diocess, — now 
there are nearly one hundred ! Here we see — what never 
has been or can be seen in any denomination otherwise 
constituted — a declining Church restored, re-invigorated, 
and improved. In the whole of New England, fifty years 



THE HON. MR. NEWTON. 173 

ago, there were about thirty clergy of our Church only ; 
now there are over two hundred. In New York, there 
were then twenty clergymen only ; now there are over three 
hundred. And thirty years ago, when you, sir, were con- 
secrated Bishop of the Eastern Diocess, there were but 
seventeen clergy therein, and now there are one hundred 
and thirteen ;* and let it be remembered, that this increase 
was in places where the most deep-rooted prejudices and 
mveterate hostility against it prevailed." 

Such testimony and from such a source is invaluable ! 

* The venerable Bishop Griswold filled the chair on the occasion. In the 
short time since the delivery of this address, the number of clergymen (regularly 
engaged) in the same section of country has increased to 151. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

NEW YORK. — DR. MILNOR. DR. WAINWRIGHT. MR. COL- 
TON. THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. — BISHOP OF VER- 
MONT. 

On the first Sunday spent in New York, I made my 
way in the morning to St. George's church, to the rector of 
which, the late Dr. Mihior, an EngHsh friend had sent me 
a letter of introduction, which I had not hitherto had an 
opportunity of delivering. It proved to be a communion 
day, and the doctor's sermon was designed to guard his con- 
gregation against too high or too Ioid views of the sacra- 
ments of the Church. The former he designated as " po- 
pish," and the latter as tending to religious indifference, and 
" practical infidelity." His remarks under the second head, 
might be useful to many who claim to belong to the same 
party (if I must use the term) in the American Church of 
which Dr. Milnor was regarded as a leader, and a high au- 
thority. 

In the afternoon I worshipped in St. Thomas's church, 
Broadway, in expectation of hearing the celebrated Dr. 
Hawks. I was not disappointed in the intellectual gratifi- 
cation I received, though his place was supplied by Dr. 
Wainwright of Boston, whom I had frequently heard be- 
fore, and always with increased pleasure. The sermon 
(from the text "My yoke is easy and my burden is light,") 
was a finished and elegant composition, not the less effec- 
tive from the quiet, unimpassioned style of delivery, which 
is natural to this gentleman, and from which he should 



CALVIN COLTON. 175 

never depart, " We expect to find" says Dr. Blair " in the 
compositions of one man some prevailing^ character of 
style, impressed on all his writing, which will mark his par- 
ticular genius and turn of mind." The same remark will 
apply to the manner of delivery. An earnest or impassion- 
ed delivery is unnatural, and fails altogether of producing 
any but a disagreeable effect on the audience when the 
composition is neither concise, nervous, or vehement. Dr. 
Wainwright's style is not feeble, nor overloaded with 
finery, but its characteristics are elegance and diffuseness ; 
these are well adapted to pulpit oratory in the city congre- 
gations of the higher classes, amongst whom his labours 
are confined, and in which sphere he is eminently useful. 
A court preacher, if by the term is understood a sycophant- 
ic time-server, he is not. His rebukes and exposures of 
the vices of the rich are frequent and pointed ; and his fear- 
less defence on a late memorable occasion of what he holds 
to be a point of orthodoxy, as well as a fact,* against a 
host of incidious opponents both from within and without 
the Church, and, with about three exceptions, the whole 
press of the country, religious and secular, prove him to be 
an honest man, and one whose example would have given 
lustre to the best days of primitive Christianity. 

On the same day in the ensuing week that Dr. Milnor 
called on me, I received a visit from the Rev. Calvin Col- 
ton, who enjoyed at that time an extensive reputation as a 
writer of a very versatile order ; a reputation, however, 
very unenviable to a mere popularity-hunter which this 
Erastian divine unquestionably is not. He combines great 
honesty of purpose, with singular want of prudence, and 
consequently exposes himself to as many unhandsome 
blows on the head as parson Yorick received, though there 
is no fear of these blows ever giving him his death ! 
* Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo. 



176 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Colton had just raised a storm about his ears in conse- 
quence of a book which, though pubhshed anonymously, 
was immediately recognized as his production in which, 
under the head of " Protestant Jesuitism," he attacked the 
various voluntary societies for professed moral reform. He 
pronounces them all as bearing an uniform resemblance to 
the institution of Loyola, which he regards as their great 
prototype ; these protestant crusades behig, he says, " all 
based upon two leading arguments, viz. alarm and neces- 
sity.'''' " If," he argues in his preface " Christianity is in- 
deed as well established in the world as the author has sup- 
posed and attempted to show, these alarms are groundless ; 
and if his views of the design and adequacy of the primitive 
institutions of Christianity are correct, these other forms of 
operation are not only a diversion, and consequent suhtrac- 
tioti of power, but must ultimately prove an embarrassment, 
and hindrance to the cause, even if preserved uncorrupt." 

Mr. Colton's book, written in a masterly style, contains 
many truisms ; but the caustic irony and pointed satire 
which he employs in attacking so large and powerful a body 
as come under his lash, many of whom were certainly in- 
nocent of the ulterior objects which Colton attributes to 
them, lost him, in a moment, hundreds of friends, and con- 
signed him to the shade of very general condemnation. 
None of his intimate acquaintances, however, would think 
the less favourably of him ; knowing as they do, that a 
love of truth for its own sake instigated the step ; — for sure- 
ly nothing else could induce any man, particularly a cler- 
gyman, to put forth such a book as " Protestant Jesuitism," 
under the very shadow of the institutions he was attacking ; 
whose silent all-powerful influence was at work in the com- 
munity of which he was a member. Its merits as a com- 
position and an argument, were of little avail in sheltering 
its author from the avalanche of public anathema which it 



THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 177 

instantly brought down on him, and from which, mitil 
the pubhc mind again becomes heakhy, he can never hope 
to rise. 

One third of this obnoxious treatise is directed against 
the " Temperance Society." Mr. Coiton was stirred up to 
write his book by a " Resolution" passed at some national 
" Convention" of tliat body, declaring that the use of intoxi- 
cating liquor in any quantity^ was "immoral," and dis- 
quahfied a person from the natural exercise of his judg- 
ment. Under the head of " intoxicating drinks" it will be 
remembered the society includes all wines, beer, cider, or 
any fermented, or artificial compounds, exhilirating or stim- 
ulating in their effects. "This resolution," remarks Mr. 
Coiton, " arraigns and condemns the best men tliat have 
ever lived — the best that now live. It spares not divinely 
inspired men ! it blots the pages of Revelation ! ! it im- 
peaches the moral character of the Saviour of the world ! ! !" 

True, undeniably true ! — and such was the testimony of 
several clergymen, present at the convention ; such the 
grave offence brought against the framers of this, and other 
similar " resolutions" on that occasion ; and the anticipa- 
tion of one of them (the Rev. Dr. McMasters) has proved 
prophetic. " The effect [has been] to drive from the ranks 
a body of men who are in -practice as temperate as them- 
selves." By putting a ban on that high priest who met 
Abraham ; by saying that the " man after God's own heart" 
when inditing the 104th Psalm under the inspiration of the 
Holy Spirit, rendered thanks to God for what was in itself 
an evil, and could not be taken without sin ; by making 
Solomon, taught by the same Spirit, prescribe it in extreme 
cases of mental depression ; by making our Saviour employ 
it in working a miracle, and thus, as well as by his exam- 
ple, incur moral guilt ; by thus voting extreme resolutions 
[they have long since] driven from their ranks numbers 

12 



178 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

who properly belonged to them.* Mr. Colton's strictures 
under this head were true enough ; and the result has 
shown most demonstratively that, after all, the Church of 
God in the world, is the one great temperance society, is 
the only effectual and legitimate instrument for reforming 
public morals, and the one by which the work will ulti- 
mately be alone effected. The sentiment it is true, is scout- 
ed by infidel philosophers, but it has nevertheless been long 
gaining ground in the belief of the community at large. 
Deny it who can — it was public opinion aloJie, under the 
influence of Christian principles and teaching, that com- 
menced, and has effected the reformation already wrought 
in the drinking habits of America. The self-constituted, 
irresponsible body of " temperance reformers" Avho constitute 
the oflSice-h older s, editors, and agents of this society, had no 
more to do with it, than the fly on the coach-wheel with 
the motion of the vehicle, though it exclaimed, " see wliat 
a dust I make !" Public opinion, without the coercion of 
any " Society" wrought the total change which took place 
in the drinking habits of the higher classes of Britain to- 
wards the end of George III.'s reign. The lengths of the 
after dinner sittings are much shorter than formerly, and 
the habit of drinking to excess on such, or on any occasions, 
has long become essentially vulgar. 

It cannot be denied, either, that in America the " tem- 
perance" question has become in too many cases the mere 

* See speech of Dr. McMasters at the Saratoga Convention in 1836. See also 
Exodus xxix. 40. Judges ix. 13; xix. 19. 2Sam. vi. 19; xvi. 2. Nehemiah v. 
18. Ps. civ. 15. Isaiah xxvii. 2, 3 ; xxix. 9; Iv. 1. Daniel i. 5. 1 Timothy v. 
23 : neither of which passages recommend, or sanction excess in drinking, which 
the Bible strongly condemns ; but they stamp falsehood upon the total absti- 
nence " Resolutions," which is all that is necessary. " Oh, sir," appealed Pro- 
fessor Potter now Bishop of Pensylvania at the same meeting, "let us cling to 
the truth — let us pursue an honest, straightforward policy. Be assured of it 
we shall never triumph on any other ground." 



THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. 179 

' tool of intriguing politicians, and religious anarchists ; and 
this to an extent that has made it in ?ome quarters abso- 
lutely disreputable. Its professed champions now turn against 
its first founders, whom they unsparingly denounce in lan- 
guage which too truly proves the truth of our Saviour's 
declaration, that it is from within, from the heart, that 
evil thoughts, false witness, and blasphemies, proceed. 
It is too frequently the shield behind which infidelity, and 
licentiousness entrench themselves, while aiming their 
poisoned darts at the very guardians of public morals, and 
the best institutions of that country. Its system of 65- 
pionage, is another most offensive feature in a community 
calling itself " free." The whole of each man's closet, lar- 
der, and cellar are laid open to the inspection of the " tem- 
perance" agent. An inquisitorial court sets up the right of 
analyzing his neighbour's affairs, and of an inspection over 
his private conduct " and when once," remarks Mr. Colton, 
"the prying eye and usurping tread of impertinence have 
obtained access within the sacred precincts of our domestic 
retreats, and dragged out the secrets of our closets to view, 
it is not only less easy to eject the intruder, than to have 
barred the door against him, but he considers himself en- 
titled to that as a right which he gained by stealth and 
violence. 

" The Church" boldly wrote the gifted Bishop of Ver- 
mont when the question was first mooted, " is the true 
school of virtue, the true temperance society, the true pre- 
servative from all the vices which infest our miserable 
world ; because the almighty Saviour is its guide, its pledges 
are blest by the power of God, and its rewards are pre-emi- 
nent in temporal comfort and eternal joy. Away from 
Christ you can have no safety ; out of his Church you can 
have no peace. If you have not sought his forgiveness, 
through repentance and faith — if you have not subdued your 



180 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

rebellious will, and taken the blessed yoke of Christ upon 
you, and given your inmost hearts to him, who bought you 
to himself with his own blood, I testify to you that equal 
destruction will be your portion. The pruning of a single 
branch is nothing when the whole tree needs to be grafted ; 
the damming up a single stream is nothing when the foun- 
tain must be cleansed ; and the outward reformation of 
a single vice is nothing while the heart continues un- 
sanctified."* 

Similar sentiments have been publicly expressed by sev- 
eral American bishops, and are doubtless those of all. The 
following arguments by Bishop McCoskry in exhorting 
some candidates for holy orders, before laying hands on 
them, to "keep aloof from societies designed to supersede 
the plans which Christ has given for the reformation of 
man," commend themselves to the consciences and judg- 
ments of all who, having the vows of the ministry on them, 
possess the moral courage to carry them out into practice : 

" You are not to oppose any benevolent effort of men, 
but only to show that wherever you go, and wherever 
found, you go, and diiefou7id ready to preach Jesus. This 
cannot be done in these societies ! A minister therefore 
loses his influence, become secularized, and often times ex- 
cited in a manner unworthy of his character and calling, 
and soon fails in the performance of the appropriate duties 
of his office. The religious world is full of such in- 
stances."t 

I heard Mr. Colton several times while in the city and 
preached for him once. I was somewhat disappointed by 
his pulpit addresses, which being divested of that playful 
wit, and that aptness in metaphor, which characterise his 

* Primitive Church, Sec. VI. 

t Ordination Sermon preached in St. Paul's, Detroit, March 20th, 1842, 
p. 39. 



DR. HIGBEE. 181 

writings, and wanting some of the essentials of a good elo- 
cution were, from their metaphysical character, but little 
adapted to a mixed city audience. Two years afterwards 
he preached in my own pulpit twice, during a week's visit 
at York, when his subjects were much better selected. Mr. 
Colton has long since retired from parochial duty, and re- 
sides in New York.* 

I was greatly charmed with a sermon I heard one even- 
ing in St. John's church from Mr. (now Dr.) Higbee. 
Though the preacher was very juvenile in appearance, (the 
consequence of an unbecoming toilet) his discourse bore 
marks of a mind well balanced, and a judgment fully ma- 
tured ; his language was elegant and florid ; his descrip- 
tions fresh and vivid ; at the same time free from that " tin- 
sel splendour" which frequently passes for eloquence in 
America, and of which some specimen orations, and con- 
gress speeches are choice examples ! 

I also, during this visit, saw the Bishop of New York for 
the first time in public, though he appeared to far less ad- 
vantage than on several subsequent opportunities I have 
had of hearing him preach ; the occasion being the opening 
of the diocesan convention by the usual address, a great 
part of which is a mere journal of his episcopal acts during 
the past year. Mr. Colton had previously made me ac- 
quainted with this amiable and kind hearted prelate ; 
than whom, for dignity of bearing, suavity, and frankness 
of manners, there is no member of the American episcopate 
who does the office higher credit. 

An evening was spent very agreeably at Dr. Berrian's, 

* While these sheets are passing through the press a Ufe of Henry Clay has 
been announced from Mr. Colton's pen. No one could do better justice to the 
subject. From his pohtical predilections, and a long and intimate acquaintance 
with that distinguished statesman, both the English and American public may 
expect a rich treat in such a biography. 



182 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the rector of Trinity parish. Present the Bishop of Ver- 
mont, Mr. Philhps, rector of St. Luke's, Catskill, Mr. Hig- 
bee. Dr. Berrian's assistant in Trinity parish, Mr. Loutrell, 
an active and zealous layman of New York, and several 
clergymen whom the Convention had brought to the city, 
on the proceedings of which the conversation chiefly turn- 
ed, till a book just published by the Bishop of Vermont, 
contrasting the early and present state of the Romish 
Church, formed the topic of animated discussion and con- 
gratulation. It was one of several volumes of great merit 
and research, written by this accomplished polemick, and 
has been since republished in London, with high commen- 
dations by the English editor and British reviewers. I ex- 
pressed my obligation to the bishop for his book on the 
" Primitive Church," which I had circulated with good ef- 
fect among my late parishioners, when he remarked that 
his last work had cost him three times the care and study. 
This may be well believed from the number of authorities 
quoted, and the necessity for the strictest accuracy, in a 
controversy with the Romish hierarchy to whom the second 
volume is addressed; 

Bishop Hopkins has since been replied to by Dr. Kenrick, 
the Roman Catholic bishop of Philadelphia ; to Avhose 
work he published a rejoinder, challenging Dr. K. to a pub- 
lic oral discussion, on the controverted points, which was 
declined. The Bishop of Vermont, therefore, remains 
master of the field. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



A SUNDAY IN PHILADELPHIA. 

On every priest a twofold care attends 
To prove his talents and insure his friends 
First, of the first— your stores at once produce, 
And bring your reading to its proper use. 
On doctrines dwell, and every point enforce 
By quoting much the scholar's sure resource ; 
For he alone can show us, on each head, 
What ancient schoolmen and sage fathers said. 
No worth has knowledge, if you fail to show 
How well you studied, and how much you know, 
Is faith your subject, and you judge it right 
On theme so dark to cast a ray of light ; 
Be it that faith the orthodox maintain, 
Found in the rubric — what the creeds explain. 
Fail not to show us, on this ancient faith, 
(And quote the passage) what some martyr saith. 
Dwell not one moment on a faith that shocks 
The minds of men sincere and orthodox ; 
That gloomy faith, that robs the wounded mind 
Of all the comfort it was wont to find 
From virtuous acts, and to the soul denies 
Its proper due for alms and charities; 
That partial faith, that, weighing sins alone. 
Lets not a virtue for a fault atone ; 
That starving faith, that would our tables clear, 
And make one dreadful Lent of all the year : 
And cruel too — for this is faith that rends 
Confiding beauties from protecting friends ; 
A faith that all embracing, ichat a gloom, 
Deep and terrific, o'er the land would come! 
What scenes of horror would that time disclose! 
No sight hut misery, and no sound but woes! 

Rev. G. Crabee. 

Having determined on a visit to Washington before sail- 
ing for England, I left New York on the 13th of October 
in a crowded steamboat, and descending the bay, entered 
Staten Island Sound, which separates it from the main land 
of New Jersey. At South Amboy, the terminating point 



184 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

of the railway across New Jersey, we took the cars, and 
pursued our way in darkness the rest of the distance to 
Philadelphia, ninety-five miles, where I was soon establish- 
ed in one of the comfortable hotels for which " the city of 
brotherly love" is deservedly famed. 

Dr. John A. Clark was at this date one of the most pop- 
ular preachers in Philadelphia ; so having the privilege of 
travellers to follow the crowd, I enquired the way to St. 
Andrew's the next morning, which was Sunday. The ap- 
pearance of the streets through which I passed greatly disap- 
pointed me, after the encomiums I had heard on the elegance 
of this city. Architecturally it possesses none ; unless the 
exceptions of some public buildings are admitted. Unifor- 
mity in the direction of streets, and the size and character 
of houses, may answer the ends of convenience and clean- 
liness, but it can scarcely be considered as a point of beauty. 
A high authority tells us that uniformity is only beautiful 
when the thing constructed requires it. " A circle, a 
square, a triangle, or a hexagon" says Dr. Blair, " gives 
pleasure to the eye by its regularity as a beautiful figure, yet 
a certain graceful variety is found to be a much more pow- 
erful principle of beauty. Regularity seems to appear beau- 
tiful to us chiefly, if not entirely, on account of its suggest- 
ing the idea of fitness, propriety, and use ; which have al- 
ways a more intimate connexion with orderly and propor- 
tioned forms, than those which appear not constructed ac- 
cording to any certain rule. * * * * j^ straight canal 
is an insipid figure when compared with the meanders of a 
river. The apartments of a house must be disposed with 
regularity for the convenience of inhabitants, but a garden 
would be disgusting if it had as much uniformity and order 
as a dwelling house." 

There can be no reason in the world for laying out a city 
with more regularity, except in its general plan, than a 



PHILADELPHIA. 185 

pleasure garden. A straight street may do here and there 
for variety's sake, and be best adapted for the business part 
of a commercial town ; but crescents, circuses, quadrants, 
and curves, relieve the eye, and afford opportunity for dif- 
ferent styles of architecture. The almost universal rule of 
plain unparapeted brick houses, wholly innocent of orna- 
ment or style, may harmonize with the quaker taste that 
designed Philadelphia, but will always disappoint the ex- 
pectations of strangers, especially from abroad, who have 
heard it described as " the second city in the United States." 
" Second" it may be in size and population, but in appear- 
ance, and beauty of situation, it is greatly surpassed by its 
sisters New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington. 

Another disagreeable feature in the houses of Phila- 
delphia are the primitive appendages of outside window 
shutters, which, with the doors, lintels, and other wood- 
work, presenting one unvarying covering of white paint, af- 
ford a severe trial to the eyes, and mark at the same time 
the unambitious taste of the citizens. 

St. Andrew's church, where I first worshipped, like most 
Philadelphia churches belonging to the "protestant episco- 
pal" communion, appears better without than within. It 
is a chaste Grecian temple, wnth a row of pillars in front. 
On entering I found the service, which was conducted by 
an assistant, commenced. The sermon was partly extem- 
pore, on the danger of "procrastination in religion," and 
closed by a fervid and high wrought appeal to the " worldly 
and the pleasure seekers." I could see at once that the 
preacher owed much of his popularity to his delivery, and 
none of it to his style, or intellectual resources. The 
former was striking and effective, giving weight to lan- 
guage and ideas generally common place, and never bril- 
liant. This he made up for l)y his elocutionary tact, and 
the exciting nature of the topics introduced. In the flow- 



186 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ers of rhetoric, and in all the higher elements of pulpit' 
oratory he is said to have been greatly surpassed by his 
predecessor Dr. Bedell, a distinguished light of the Ameri- 
can Church ; which, from a perusal of the sermons of that 
eminent divine, I am well prepared to beheve. As a writer 
on subjects of experimental piety, religious biography, etc., 
Dr. Clark Avas, however, very successful, though his looks 
discover no genius. His attempts at description are labour- 
ed and ambitious, overloaded with redundances of lan- 
guage, and . emulative of pictorial effect; but, from the 
many unnatural touches introduced, and the sameness that 
pervades his scenes, leaving no lasting impress of them on 
the reader's mind. Dr. Clark's writings have had their day 
with his career as a preacher, and will add nothing to the 
standard religious literature of America. 

I received a very disagreeable impression on this occa- 
sion from the custom (unpractised in old or New England) 
of ii(rning the hack to the altar during the prayers. To 
say nothing of its gross irreverence, it is attended with noise 
and great inconvenience, both to the kneelers, and " non- 
conformists," among which class I was compelled to class 
myself during my residence in the South, resting the crime 
of violating the rubric on those churchwardens who, in 
their solicitude for the comfort and luxurious accommoda- 
tion of hearers, overlook the necessary provision for wor- 
shippers. 

In the evening I accompanied some friends to St. 
Stephen's church in Tenth street a fine stone building with 
Gothic decorations, and two octagonal towers in front. 
The interior is for the most part in good taste, the walls 
and wood-work of a sombre tint, with several marble mon- 
uments and tablets. The hand of innovation, which has 
since the Revolution despoiled and transformed nearly all 
the other churches of Philadelphia, has hitherto spared this 



DR. DUCACHET. 187 

beautiful temple, whose only defect is in the chancel ar- 
rangements, where the pulpit, and the Holy Table, have 
changed places, which makes it bad for the preacher, and 
bad for his hearers ; besides depriving the church of an end 
altar, to which — were the chancel arranged on ecclesiastical 
principles — the fine east window of stained glass would im- 
part an imposing effect. 

Dr. Ducachet, the rector of the parish, who preached on 
this occasion, was just declining from the zenith of a well 
merited popularity. To great scholastic acquirements, and 
a fine intellect, he adds the advantages of a good address, 
clear, distinct, and emphatic enunciation. These attrac- 
tions drew large crowds to St. Stephen's on his first arrival 
in Philadelphia, and still attach to him his regular parish- 
ioners, including some of the oldest, and wealthiest fami- 
lies in the city ; but he has long ceased to be the lion of the 
day, and is now almost forgotten by many of his former 
admirers. 



CHAPTER XXX. 



PHILADELPHIA LIONS. 



Philadelphia has, perhaps, more historic associations 
which make it interesting to a foreign visitor, than any 
other city or town in the Union. One of the first objects 
which the stranger seeks is the state house, in which the 
first congress of the United States hekl its dehberations and 
from which the Declaration of Independence was read to 
the people, on July the fourth 1776. The building is a lit- 
tle more than a century old, a plain brick structure, greatly 
and deservedly venerated by the citizens. The extensive 
garden behind it is now laid out as a public square, and 
with its gravelled walks, and avenues of trees, affords a de- 
lightful and favourite promenade. 

Chesnut-street, on which the state house and several 
other public buildings front, is the present fashionable 
street of Philadelphia. The pavement, trottoir, and shops, 
are superior to that of any other, and on a fine day present 
a very animated appearance, from the number of gay 
pedestrians, and the elegance of the equipages. It runs, 
like many parallel streets from river to river, but beyond 
Broad-street, which crosses it a little more than half its en- 
tire length, the houses are private, and the signs of busi- 
ness and pleasure cease. Broad-street promises to form a 
grand ornament to the city. It runs from north to south 
through its centre, and is 113 feet wide. It is not yet half 



PHILADELPHIA LIONS. 189 

built, but mansions,* churches, and public edifices are going 
up slowly ; the double row of trees on each side are pro- 
gressing towards maturity ; and when buildings worthy of 
the site line its whole length, and the dangerous railway 
tracks which temporarily obstruct and disfigure the cause- 
way, are removed, the Philadelphians may pride themselves 
on possessing the handsomest street in the world. 

Near the junction with Broad-street stands the mint, a 
fine marble edifice of the Ionic order. Respectable visitors 
are allowed free admission to it, and taken round in single 
parties by one of the officers, who obligingly replied to my 
questions, and gave every necessary explanation in our 
course through the diflferent rooms. This man would re- 
gard the oflTer of a fee as an insult, — and in this particular, 
we are obliged to own the superiority of American subordi- 
nates over those in our own country. The free admission 
which is permitted to many public places is not merely 
no?timal, subjecting you, either to the insolent demands of 
menials for money, or, what is more offensive still, their 
cringing importunities, and petty obstructions against a 
free egress after the performance of a trifling ofllice, till the 
fee is paid. In every part of the United States which I visited 
I found the persons in attendance at public institutions, obli- 
ging and intelligent, without the expectation of any reward. 

The merchants' exchange forms a conspicuous ornament 
in the business suburb of the city. The front elevation is 
semicular, with Corinthian columns resting on a high base- 
ment. The principal entrance opens into a vestibule, 
which communicates with the city post-office and other 
public departments. A double staircase leads to a landing 
which opens to a splendid semi-circular apartment, richly 

* And, unlike the rest of the city with some pretensions to style ; two in par- 
ticular are fine specimens of the palazzo style, arguing well for an improving 
taste in Philadelphia. 



190 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

embellished with paintings and fresco work, the roof sup- 
ported by Corinthian pillars, the floor composed of mosaic. 
Adjoining this hall is a large reading-room, containing all 
the leading papers of the country, including the Lon- 
don dailies, and periodicals. This noble structure was 
erected by the city at an immense cost, the material being 
of the finest marble. 

I reached the hotel about 3 o'clock, after a pretty exten- 
sive pursuit of city lions, and found the vestibule or hall, in 
which is the har^ crowded with the male inmates, who all 
dine in ordinary as at New York and Boston, unless a sep- 
arate room is requested, for which there is an extra charge. 
The company, which was numerous and select, manifested 
miusual hilarity after taking their seats at the dinner table, 
which, added to the fashionable toilet generally displayed, 
seemed strangely in keeping with the rules of deportment 
and dress established by the founders of this quaker city. 
The dinner was cooked in the best style, and exhibited no 
lack of variety in the viands. 

The third course, of which the pastry forms a part, is 
not particularized in the bill of fare. This third course 
being " the dessert" at all American inns, fruit, sweetmeats 
etc. form part of it. An English dessert (after the removal 
of the cloth) I have never known except at private houses, 
nor is it common in those. 

I spent the evening at the museum, which was then ex- 
hibiting in the buildings of the arcade, a handsome struc- 
ture of marble, with a double avenue, fronting on Chesnut 
street. Amongst the paintings were many well executed 
portraits of public characters. The whole collection of 
curiosities with large additions, now occupy a more com- 
modious receptacle in a building of ample dimensions, 
since erected for the purpose, which is also used for con- 
certs a la Musard. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON, AND ALEXANDRIA. INDIAN 

CHIEFS. 

The next morning I pursued my way southward by the 
steamboat, which conveyed us down the Delaware. The 
view of the city would be very fine from the river but from 
the absence of spires and lofty public edifices. The first 
place of any note that we passed, after leaving Philadelphia, 
was Fort Mifllin, about seven miles distant, where the river 
Schuylkill joins the Delaware. It was the principal defence 
of the latter during the late war, but is now going to decay. 
Ten miles further on Chester appears in sight on the right 
bank, one of the first settled towns in the state, and still 
bearing many marks of antiquity. We were landed at 
Wilmington and transferred to the railway cars. 

The railroad crossed the peninsula which forms the state 
of Delaware, to Havre de Grace, where we passed the 
mouth of the far famed Susquehanna by ferry. On the op- 
posite bank we resumed our seats in cars of a handsomer 
construction, for Baltimore, the chief city of Maryland, 110 
miles from Philadelphia. 

This fine city lies at the head of Patapsco Bay, fourteen 
miles from the Chesapeake and two hundred from sea : it 
is justly admired for its situation and its numerous archi- 
tectural beauties. Its size is the same as Boston, and less 
than half that of Philadelphia. After a hasty dinner, I 
took my place in the cars for Washington, which city, forty 
miles distant, I reached by eight o'clock. 



192 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

A crowd of blacks came round us on alighting from the 
cars, each offering to carry the luggage, and clamourously 
urging the superiority of the respective hotels to which they 
were attached. These were chiefly slaves, yet who would 
suppose it from their comfortable sleek appearance, and the 
look of contented glee that marks every face ? Consigning 
my portmanteau to one of the sable tribe, I accompanied 
him along a wdde street, bordered with trees, to an hotel, 
where I found comfortable entertainment, and pleasant 
companionship amongst the other lodgers during ray stay in 
the city. 

It happened most unfortunately that, delaying my de- 
parture from Philadelphia till Tuesday, I lost the opportu- 
nity of seeing Congress assembled, as it had the very day 
of my arrival adjourned, after an extra session. The mem- 
bers were all gone, or on the eve of departure, and I walked 
through the deserted chambers of the capitol the next morn- 
ing with feelings of keen regret. This capitol is well wor- 
thy of its national design, being the finest building I have 
yet seen in the country, and equalled by few edifices in the 
world. It stands on an elevation, overlooking the city and 
the broad expanse of the Potomac river. Its length is 350 
feet, and its height 145. An advanced portico on the front 
of the centre building, is ornamented with a triple row of 
beautiful marble columns. The wide stone steps approach- 
ing this entrance conduct to the rotunda, 95 feet in diame- 
ter, ornamented by superb reliefs, and large paintings by 
native artists, representing some of the principal events in 
the national liistory. South of the rotunda, occupying that 
wing of the building, is the chamber of the House of Rep- 
resentatives, a semi-circular hall, with columns supporting 
the roof. The senate chamber occupies the north wing, 
and below the senate chamber is the supreme court of the 
United States ; there being, besides these rooms, some sixty 



ALEXANDRIA. 193 

or seventy offices for committees, congress officers, refresh- 
ments, etc. The grounds round this noble pile of buildings 
cover more than twenty acres, tastefully laid out in walks 
and shrubbery. 

At noon I took the steamboat for Alexandria, a town six 
miles further down the Potomac, on the opposite side. The 
river at Washington is very wide, and deep enough for the 
largest ships ; notwithstanding which, and the generally 
excellent position of Washington for commercial purposes, 
it has as yet made but little advances as a trading port ; 
the number of inhabitants being only twenty thousand, 
though the plan of the city, if carried out, would be adapted 
to a population of a million souls. The trade of Alexan- 
dria is considerable for its size. It lies pleasantly at the 
foot of verdant hills, and is built with neatness and regu- 
larity. I took tea with the amiable rector of St. Paul's, 
who is much beloved by his numerous body of parishioners. 
I had several occasions afterwards of renewing my ac- 
quaintance with this gentleman and his accomplished lady 
in New York. He has since declined the episcopate of 
Alabama, which was tendered to him by the Convention 
of that diocess. 

In the neighbourhood of Alexandria is a flourishing theo- 
logical seminary for the diocess of Virginia, in which it 
stands, of which the bishop is ex officio, president, — though 
more properly the visitor, as he resides at Millwood, m 
Clarke county. The professorships are those of Ecclesias- 
tical History and Pulpit Eloquence, [Rev. Dr. May] Syste- 
matic Divinity, [Rev. Dr. Sparrow] and Sacred Literature 
[Rev. Joseph Packard, A. M.]. Besides this seminary, the 
diocess has an Education Society, and two High Schools. 

In the morning I returned to Washington, and spent the 
day in viewing the churches, and other public buildings. 
There are four of the former, viz. St. John's, Trinity, Christ 

13 



194 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Church, the Epiphany,* and three in the adjoining suburb 
of Georgetown. Besides these there are about fifteen 
places of worship for different rehgious denominations. At 
Georgetown, the Romanists have a seminary under Jesuit 
tuition, conducted by twenty teachers, and accommodating 
140 pupils. Columbian College is a baptist institution, in 
which are nine teachers, and fifty pupils. 

Friday 2()th. — Mr. Hawley, the rector of St. John's, 
having offered to introduce me to the President, we reached 
"the White House" about noon, where I found to my 
chagrin that a special despatch, just received, had required 
the attendance of the Secretary of State, with whom he 
was in consultation. The attendant, to whom my guide's 
person was familiar, invited us into the drawing-room, and 
then conducted us through the principal apartments of the 
executive mansion, which is in all respects handsomely 
appointed. We then visited the offices of the various de- 
partments of state. In one of these is a gallery of Indian 
portraits, the original Declaration of Independence, treaties 
with foreign powers, and other curiosities. 

Later in the day, Mr. Hawley introduced me to a depu- 
tation of Indians from the tribes of the Sauks, Foxes, Sioux, 
and loways. The first two are a finer looking race than 
the others, with more expressive features. I succeeded, 
without the interpreter (who was absent) to hold something 
of a conversation with the chieftains Kee-o-kuk and Black 
Hawk who represented their two tribes ; the former was 
accompanied by his son " Whistling Thunder." The whole 
party were familiar with my friend's person, and gathered 
round us during our difficult dialogue, which was, of course, 
carried on by dumb gesture. At its close I drew out a shirt 
pin, and presented it to Kee-o-kuk. He examined it very 
minutely, and after handing it round to the other chiefs 
* Three have been since added. 



INDIAN CHIEFS. 195 

proffered it to me with respectful obeisance. On signifying 
to him that it was a gift he placed it with great care in 
the folds of his scarlet vest, and extending his hand to me, 
held it for a short space while pronouncing some friendly 
speech. 

I left the city by the evening train of cars, and reached 
Barnum's Hotel, Baltimore, at 8 p. m. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



DR. WYATT. 



On Saturday morning (Oct 21st.) I called with an intro- 
duction, on the Rev. Dr. Wyatt, rector of St. Paul's ; and 
here I have to record one of the most agreeable acquaint- 
ances I formed whilst in the country. Dr. Wyatt has long 
filled the situation of president in the House of Clerical 
and Lay Deputies, to which post no one in the American 
Church could impart more dignity ; whilst his regular elec- 
tion to it at the triennial meetings of the General Conven- 
tion is a high testimony of the estimation in which he is 
held by the whole Church. I may add, that such an office 
confers as much, if not greater, relative distinction on its 
possessor than that of bishop, to which, but for the high 
state of party feeling in Maryland, Dr. Wyatt would have 
been elected on two occasions of a vacant chair. On the 
last vacancy (in 1839) the votes were nearly balanced be- 
tween him and a rival candidate, but neither party having 
the requisite majority of two-thirds, the Convention made 
choice of another, in the person of the Rev. William Rollin- 
son Whittingham, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the 
General Theological Seminary, a gentleman of the same 
school as Dr. Wyatt, under whose firm and vigorous ad- 
ministration the diocess has since greatly flourished. 

I found Dr. Wyatt occupying the old episcopal residence, 
the property of the parish of St. Paul's with the rectorship 
of which the bishop's office was formerly connected ; it is 



ST Paul's church. 197 

now only the rectory house of the parish. Antique in its 
appearance, it stands back from the street, and is thickly 
shaded with trees, hke more than one old parsonage which 
I recollect in early days, announcing to the by-passer the 
abode of piety and learning. Its courteous inmate received 
me with dignified frankness, and after offering me the hos- 
pitalities of his house (which I only partially accepted) in- 
vited me to preach in his pulpit on the afternoon of the 
next day. 

On reaching my hotel I found the Dr.'s younger son, a 
bright intelligent youth, already awaiting my arrival, hav- 
mg been sent to pioneer me to the principal places of inter- 
est in the city. These are more numerous for the size of 
the place than in New York, or Philadelphia, and give evi- 
dence of greater taste, and regard to elegance than the lat- 
ter, of which the monuments, public fountains, and various 
architectural ornaments which meet the eye in different 
parts of the city, afford constant evidence. Of the former, 
the colossal statue of Washington by Causici, on a Doric 
Column and base 180 feet high, is a superb work of art, 
and gives a character to the whole city as seen from neigh- 
bouring elevations. The fountains are also classically em- 
bellished with basins and temples of marble, and the archi- 
tecture of private residences, some of which are truly 
princely, also shows a prevalence of individual taste to 
which the Philadelphians are total strangers. 

St. Paul's church, in which I worshipped the next morn- 
ing, is the third in point of dimensions, and beautj^ of de- 
sign in the United States. The main building was com- 
pleted in 1817, and the spire, which somewhat resembles 
St. Pancras, has been since added. In this church the com- 
munion table occupies its proper place near the wall ;* but 

♦ This arrangement is of course superseded where, in a large church the 
choristers occupy the chancel end ; as in our English cathedrals, the Temple 



198 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the disproportionate size and situation of the pulpit, imme- 
diately in front, almost hides it from view : a smaller evil, 
it must be granted, than giving the altar a subordinate 
place in front of the pulpit, but which is easily remedied by 

church etc. ; when the altar should, according to ecclesiastical rule, and the 
universal custom of the early Church, stand out somewhat from the wall. Hence 
the word choir from vwdo coronm. St. Paul's church. Baltimore, is well con- 
trived for the choral chancel service. Who that has worshipped in a church 
where this primitive arrangement is observed but has been struck with its sim- 
ple beauty, and its great superiority to the gallery choir mode 1 The chapel of 
St. Mary's (Romish) College, Baltimore, affords a fine specimen, which shows 
how well it can be adapted even to a small church. I need scarcely add that 
the plan of a pulpit in the rear of the altar, (the latter forming its adjunct) 
would be even more grotesque in this case than the present arrangement in many 
American churches : the idea, originally, of Bishop Hobart, whose catholic creed 
failed to correct his early puritanical bias and national utilitarianism ; and whose 
stong American prejudices led him to eschew any European precedent in mat- 
ters which he considered non-essential. I am happy, however, to add, that bis 
barbarous innovations in the churches of New-York are, one by one, being re- 
moved ; though the extent to which the miserable models have been copied in 
that wide diocess, and all over the Union is a thing to be deplored by every lover 
of taste. 

While alluding to the subject of detached altars and (antiphonal) choir music, 
I will add the statement of my brother, who has made the subject of ecclesiasti- 
cal antiquities his study : — 

" In many larger churches, and in cathedrals, where the width was greater 
[than in small parish churches] the spot usually chosen for the altar was the 
middle of the part hence denominated the Choir. In the case of a cruciform 
church such a position was particularly appropriate, as it affords a direct and 
uninterrupted view to the worshippers, whether standing in the transept, nave, 
or chancel. In the ancient liturgies was a prayer 'for all those that stood round 
about the altar.' The priests and the deacons surrounded it when they officiated, 
and Durandus, a catholic writer, informs us that when a bishop consecrates a 
a new altar, he must encompass it seven times, from which it was manifest that 
it could not have stood against a wall. Additional evidence to the same effect 
might be cited on the authority of Eusebius, Dionysius the Areopagite, Chrys- 
ostom, Athanasius, and in our own country, Austin, first Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and Venerable Bede. Railing the altar in is usually dated from the period 
of the Council of Aix, held in 1583; one of whose Canons ordains' Unumquod- 
que Altare sepiatur oinnino septo ferreo vel kipideo vel ligneo.' " — " Chronicles of 
The Devizes" by James Waylen Esq. p. 302. 



DR. WYATT. 199 

placing the pulpit and reading-desk (if reading-desk there 
must be) at corresponding angles of the transept or aisles, 
and thus — without any loss in hearing or seeing — throw- 
ing open the chancel, with its edifying embellishments, to 
the view of the whole congregation. 

In the vestry-room Dr. Wyatt introduced me to his as- 
sistant, Mr. Hutton, now rector of a parish in Montgomery 
county in the same state, who read morning prayers, the 
doctor taking the ante-communion service. His sermon 
was directed against duelling, and was called forth by a 
fatal meeting which had lately taken place near the city, 
and the peculiar circumstances of which had caused much 
excitement. Dr. Wyatt's pulpit style, though adapted to 
the class of hearers who compose his congregation, would 
be ill-suited to the mixed audience within the walls of an 
English Church, where happily (and may it always be so) 
the Church is the heritage of the poor man as well as the 
rich. As a masterly specimen of style, the doctor'^ pulpit 
compositions merit high praise. They combine elegance 
and idiomatic accuracy, the language being full and har- 
monious, and, though richly ornamented, free from the 
faults of that luxiuiance of style which too commonly per- 
vades the American pulpit. For purity of language, and 
simplicity of expression he is justly considered to excel his 
cotemporaries. In force, vehemence, and poetic imagery 
Dr. Hawks may stand alone in the class of popular preach- 
ers, and Bishop Eastburn in the smoothness and melody of 
his periods, and the manliness of his conceptions, but for 
naturalness and purity, Wyatt has no equal in the Amer- 
ican Church. In the language of an eminent critic ap- 
pHed to the writings of the best British authors of Anne's 
reign, " it is pure English undeliled, flowing in its own na- 
tive channel, and reflecting home objects and scenes." 

In the evening I entered Christ-church, next to St. Paul's 



200 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

in point of size and beauty. The preacher was Dr. Johns, 
afterwards the rival candidate of Dr. Wyatt for the bishop- 
ric, mentioned above. His sermon was different in its 
character from that of the morning, being wholly extem- 
pore, and unmethodical, though delivered with considerable 
fluency. It was, however, marked by a disagreeable re- 
dundancy of words, and a want of naturalness in the 
preacher's action, which greatly marred the general effect, 
and which are faults only excusable in a very youthful 
preacher. 

The pulpit in Christ-church is made of white marble, 
and stands out from a recess which should be the chancel, 
but which is filled with a luxuriant sofa ( ! !) raised on a 
carpeted platform, for the special accommodation of the 
preacher during the time of service ; the communion table 
being actually pushed into a corner on one side of the read- 
ing desk to make room for the pulpit, and its appliances. 
This looks like man-worship with a vengeance, and is as 
total a violation of every rule of good taste, as of ecclesias- 
tical propriety. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE "ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 

" What! shall the vine so nobly brought 

With blood and fiery toil, 
From Romish Egypt, turn her roots, 

Back to its meagre soil 1 
Nay, strong in liberty she'll stand 

With glorious foliage decked, 
For planted by our God's own hand 

His right hand shall protect. 

Of no Italian bishop, we 

The sway usurping own, 
Which, in the times true catholic, 

The Church had never known; 
But by an apostolic line 

Descended from of old, 
We yet the traditum divine 

Of Bishop Gregory hold. 

Be't your's to own TrenVs false decrees — 

Rome's popish rod to dread, — 
We hold the councils catholic, 

And Christ our glorious Head; 
A martyr-bearing Church indeed, 

We claim our Mother high ; 
And we have yet our Laud-s to bleed, 

Our DiNOTHs to reply. 

We pity thee misguided Rome ! 

In olden time you burned 
The brightest beacon of the Faith, 

And noble trophies earned ; 
But now you've wrapped yourself in night, 

With error's pall arrayed; 
That Holy Faith once pure and bright 

You almost have betrayed. 

What ! burned our apostolic light 

With such ambiguous blaze, 
That ye should dare true sheep invite 

In schism's fold to graze 1 
Our Shepherds true have roused them quick 

To guard their trust divine. 
And show we love Church Catholic 

More, Arath's lord, than thine." 

I SPENT Monday in a further survey of the city, in com- 
pany with Mr. Hutton. The exchange, custom house, city 



202 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

hall, court house, hospital, masonic hall, etc., are well 
worth inspection ; but the most important edifice in Balti- 
more is the Roman Catholic cathedral, which I surveyed 
at my leisure the next day. It falls far short of similar 
buildings in the old world, but is nevertheless a church of 
considerable pretensions. The order is Grecian, which is 
unsuited to the cruciform plan. Some pictures of great 
merit near the west entrance were presents from Louis 
XVI. and Charles X. The archbishop's house is in the 
rear of the altar. He is metropolitan of the Romanists, 
in the United States, by the title of " The Most Rev. the 
Archbishop of Baltimore,"* the diocess under his control 
comprising the State of Maryland and the District of Co- 
lumbia. 

The Roman Catholic province of the United States, has 
about half the number of sees and clergymen as the Anglo- 
American Church. It was constituted by Pope Pius VII. 
in 1808, which year fixes the date of its existence ; being 
twenty-one years after the American Church had acquired 
its complete form in the consecration of three bishops : or 

♦ The spirited stanzas at the head of this chapter refer to a letter which Dr. 
Kenrick, a bishop in Archbishop Eccleston's province, addressed to the bishops 
of the American Church, inviting them to join the Romish schism. Gregory 
the Great, (referred to in the second stanzas) was Bishop of Rome, A.D. 590. 
He affirmed the title of "Universal Bishop" to be "profane, anti-christian, and 
infernal, by whomsoever assumed." (Consult the authorities referred to in Mur- 
duck's Mosheim, vol. 1. p. 461.) 

At the interview between Augustine and the clergy of the British Church, 
Dinoth, Abbot of Bangor (referred to in the third stanza) declined, on behalf 
of himself and brethren, to recognize the Bishop of Rome in any higher charac- 
ter than as a friendly prelate — " We are bound" he said " to serve the Church 
of God, and the Bishop of Rome and every godly Christian, as far as helping 
them in offices of love and charity ; this service we arc ready to pay, but more 
than this I do not know to be due to him or any other. We have a primate of 
our own, who is to advise us under God, and to keep us in the way of spiritual 
life." 

Dr. Kenrick (referred to in the fifth stanza) styled himself" Bishop of Arath." 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 203 

should the American Romanists date the estabhshment of 
their Church from the consecration of their first " Bishop of 
Bahiniore," they are no better oft", as (to say nothing of that 
prelate's episcopal powers being confined to the diocess over 
which he was placed, whose limits were the same as they 
now are) the date of his consecration was two years after 
that of Bishops White and Provoost, and Jive years after 
that of Bishop Seabury. As regards the question of pri- 
ority, therefore, the Church planted in the United States 
by England has the first claim on the support of the nation 
as an episcopal Church ; and this, by itself, is a material 
point. 

There are, however, other points of controversy between 
the two communions. One of these relates to the validity 
of Romish American orders. The society of Romanists in 
England it is well known, date their origin from the reign 
of Elizabeth, when the united Holy Catholic Church of 
England, one and undivided, including the whole nation, 
was disturbed by a schism amongst some of its members, 
who dissented from it, and established a sect in this coun- 
try, which sect took its rise conjointly with other sects. 
The principles of this new sect were similar to certain ex- 
ploded tenets, imported from Italy, which had at one time 
tainted the national faith, and which had been lopped off 
by the regular guardians (the episcopal heads) of the Eng- 
lish Church. In support of their schism, this dissenting 
body called in the aid of the Italian bishop, who gave his 
countenance and support to the new society ; they in return 
acknowledging his spiritual authority, conformmg to the 
forms of worship used in his province, though in a foreign 
tongue, unintelligible to them, and placing themselves un- 
der his priests. That the episcopal ordination of these in- 
truding clergy did not give authority to their acts in Eng- 
land, nor communicate to the schismatical body at whose 



204 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

instance they came here, the form or substance of a Cath- 
olic Church, nor alter its character as a dissenting body from 
the Catholic Church then established in England requires 
no proof, being self-evident. Primitive usage, and universal 
canon law, making it illegal and schismatical for one bish- 
op, or one patriarch to interfere with the province of an- 
other ; nor does the elevation of some of these foreign 
ecclesiastics to the episcopate by a form of consecration 
make them any the less dissenting ministers amongst us : 
Romanists in principle — Catholic only in name.* 

* " The alien-vassals of Rome, properly called papists, and improperly called 
anything else, have a very adroit method of fixing upon the Church of England 
the offensive stigma and imputation of the deadly sin of schism. Always anxious 
to assert and reiterate the same iniquitous falsehood, such individuals never 
trouble themselves about proof The offence is altogether the papists', not 
ours. A point of history proves it ; and this we proceed to set before the 
reader. 

" The case is clear to those who will examine the facts of it ; so clear, that 
even Father Barnes, the Benedictine, wrote a book called " Catholicus Ro- 
manus Pacificatue," to induce the Roman patriarch to receive the EniWis'h 
Church into his communion, justifying us from the charge of schism and her- 
esy. Palmer, ii. 258. 

With respect then to the schism with which we are charged, we will say 
a few words, and, for the present leave father Barnes to acquit us of 
"heresy." 

Upon the accession of Queen EUzabeth, anno 1 558, the whole body of the 
nation conformed to the purified ritual — the ritual of the papists retrenched, 
(as Mr. O'Croly, the popish priest, admits) : its errors and norelties beiiig ex- 
punged, its ancient excellencies kept, and parts of other ancient liturgies bein<T 
added ; these form the basis of our present Book of Common Prayer, which 
has, since that time, undergone no material alteration. 

Out of the whole body of clergy and dignitaries, fourteen bishops and a hun- 
dred and eighty nine priests only, were recusants. 

Nor was this conformity objected to (openly at least) by the pope. For so 
long as he had any hope of winning Elizabeth to cede the question of " su- 
premacy," the papists were actually allowed to, and did, conform to the use of 
the liturgy, and of the public worship — the Common Prayer — after its method, 
with the protesting catholics of the purified National Church, and they were 
allowed to, and did, receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at the hands 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 205 

The " Roman Catholic Church" of the United States is 
the offspring of this Romanist society as regularly and 
legitimately as the Church episcopal in that country is the 

of the conforming clergy. It was not until after successive Italian arch-priests 
found that there was no chance of succeeding in their wiles to insnare the 
Queen into acknowledgment of vassalage to Rome, that Pius V., in 1569, is- 
sued his " Bull" commanding all to separate from the Church of England who 
were still willing to submit to " his fraudulent falsehood and false-pretended su- 
premacy" — (as the burning Bishop Bonner had formerbj well taught those to scnj, 
whom he aftericards burned Jor believing him, and protesting accordingly). The 
papists doing this, (i. e. obeying the Italian bishop, and disobeying their own 
metropolitan,) they separated from us; and, in that act of separation became 
papal recusants ; and they are, therefore, papistical schismatics from the Episco- 
pal National Church. They separated, schismatized,frum us. 

They and others affirm, that xce are schismatics; but let the fact I have ad- 
duced assure all catholics, (not Itahan catholics,) to the contrary. I repeat it, 
they, with the secular clergy, conformed to the purified ritual, and used it for 
upwards of ten years. If that ritual were effective then why not now 7 and 
why rend the "Body of Christ" (Col. i. 24) for points non-essentiall If not 
effective, how came the pope to allow their use of it 1 Their then conformity 
gives the stamp and character to their sin, which, as regards their national 
standing, is SCHISM ; and which, commencing then, has unhappily continued 
ever since. A "schism" indeed there is! — But they have made it, not we. 
This is a fact-historical, that no Churchman should ever lose sight of. 

" I solemnly protest at this moment, I know not why a papist separates him- 
self from our Communion : and of this I am confident, that out of all the 
boasted millions of them in this empire, not one could himself give any other 
reason for it, save this, — that the Pope ordered him. Of respectable authority, 
sometimes, in Rome, but none here at any time : and they who disparaged their 
proper diocesan by swamping his authority, in upholding the usurpation of a 
pretender to foreign jurisdiction, will be accountable for all the sin of weaken- 
ing the authority of the Episcopate of Christ, as well as for the guilt, the 
great guilt, of living in avowed, constant, determined, and depraved schism. — 
Rev. Mr. Glover. 

The remarks of the excellent Bishop of Toronto (Dr. Strachan) under this 
head also put this matter in its true light, and in a few words. They are con- 
tained in a Charge to his clergy, delivered June 6, 1844 : 

" Before leaving this subject, permit me to remind you that the Church of 
England is not an offset from the Church of Rome in the sixteenth century, as 
many of her enemies assert; for she never sep-^rated from that Church, but 



206 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

daughter of the Church of England, the Church presbyte- 
rial of the Church of Scotland (so called,) the congrega- 
tionalists of the English independants, the baptists of the 
English baptists, and the methodists of the English Wes- 
leyans. Dr. Carroll, the first " Archbishop of Baltimore," 
was consecrated at Ijullworth in Dorsetshire, by Dr. 
Charles Walmsley, one of the intruding priests in the 
Bishop of Salisbury's diocess, and from that source the 
Romish clergy of the United States either derive theii 

was originally an independent branch of the Catholic Church, founded not by 
missionaries from Rome, but by the apostles or their immediate successors ; and 
thus she continued till the eleventh century, when the Church of Rome as- 
sumed an ascendency over her, but which was never fully recognised, nor was 
it effected, till after a long and arduous struggle, — a struggle which was re- 
newed from time to time, and on the first favourable opportunity, which hap- 
pened in the sixteenth century, her independency was regained. The great 
ignorance which prevails on this subject, even among educated people, is truly 
surprising. They speak of the ' Protestant Church of England' as if it were 
a distinct body from the Church which subsisted before Henry the Eighth, 
and as if, at the Reformation, the protestant clergy supplanted the clergy of the 
Church of Rome. So far was this from being the case, that when the Refor- 
mation was established in England, all the clergy conformed to the new order 
of things, with the exception of eighty out of ten or twelve thousand, and 
therefore the Church in England, as composed of the clergy and laity in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, consisted of the very same body of persons which 
formed it in the reign of her father. The real fact of the matter is this : — out 
of the eighteen centuries during which the Church of England has existed, she 
continued about four hundred and ffty years under the usurped dominion of 
the Church of Rome, and for thirteen hundred and Jifty years she has been an 
independent branch of the Church Catholic. So great is the absurdity and 
palpable ignorance of historical facts evinced by those who represent the Church 
of England as a branch separated from the Roman communion! Our Re- 
formers merely brought back the Church of England to the same state of pu- 
rity and liberty which it enjoyed previous to the temporary imposition of the 
papal yoke. They put forth no new doctrines, but merely divested the old 
ones of the corruptions which had been fastened upon them during the dark 
ages. In all essential points, — in the Sacraments, — in the unbroken succession 
of Ministers,— the Church of England is at this day the same that it was in 
primitive times." 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 207 

orders or their parochial appointments. Thus, jjriority of 
occupation and origin, both give to the Anglo-American 
hierarchy an advantage over the rival episcopate. 

But the Romish- American orders are further impaired by 
another circumstance. It is well known that the Church, 
from the earliest period, required the presence of three 
bishops in consecrating to the highest office of its threefold 
ministry. Consecration by one bishop was forbidden by 
the Apostolic Canons, and the canons of the councils erf 
Aries, Nice, Antioch, Laodicea, and Carthage. Church 
history informs us, that the Patriarch of Constantinople 
(Michael Oxites) rejected the ordinations performed by two 
bishops on the ground of their own imperfect consecration, 
conferred by a single bishop, and that the first Council of 
Orange, A. D. 529, directed that in any case of such de- 
parture from vmiversal and primitive usage both parties 
should be solemnly deposed. 

There are good reasons for this law of the Church : the 
principal of which is, that — as from the bishop proceeds 
the commission of the priesthood, and the continuance of 
the succession in his own order — it is important that there 
be full evidence of his own regular consecration, which the 
attestation of two or onore consecrators secures, certainly 
more effectually than that of one. Be that as it may, the 
practice of the Church has been to have two or more con- 
secrators for each bishop ; and the most eminent writers in 
the Romish Church, with Bellarmine at their head, ques- 
tion the validity of consecration by only one. We have, 
therefore, the authority of that Church in Europe, in pro- 
nouncing the orders of the Romish American Church in 
the United States doubtful, at the least. 

The only shadow of a claim to episcopal authority in 
the United States, which the doctors of this communion 
possess, rests upon the shallow fable of the pope's suprem- 



208 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

acy ; Pius VII. having sanctioned the establishment of a 
branch Church in the United States by the Enghsh papists, 
and recognised Dr. Carroll as the arch-episcopal head of 
the new province : as though a Bull from Rome could sup- 
ply the defeet of his consecratioti, any more than a decree 
from Canterbury or London, pronouncing Dr. Coke a 
bishop, by virtue of having received consecration from 
John Wesley, could have invested him with valid episcopal 
powers ! 

Judged by these laws and standards of its own mother 
Church in Europe, the Romanist society of the United 
States is proved to be an unsound and schismatical branch 
of the Church Catholic. 

But would the lawfully existing, and lawfully constituted 
catholic Church in the United States deem these defects in 
the constitution of the rival communion insuperable bars 
to an union with her, and a recognition of her orders in 
the three degrees of the ministry 1 — This is an important 
question at the present moment I That vmion has been 
proposed on the part of the Romish " Church" by the 
present " Bishop of Philadelphia"* in a letter addressed to 
the American prelates, in which he promises, on behalf of 
himself and his colleagues, that " nothing shall be wanting 
on their part to facilitate the reconciliation ;" — hinting that 
as " the object merits the greatest sacrifices the indulgence 
of the Church would be extended to the utmost limits, 
consistent with principle, and the general interests of reli- 
gion."! 

An excellent and catholic spirit characterises the lan- 
guage of Dr. Kenrick's proposal, though it is accompanied 
with conditions to which it is impossible for the American 

* Dr. Kenrick, then " Bishop of Arath" and assistant to the Romish " Bishop 
of Philadelphia." 

t Bishop Kenrick's Letter to the Protestant Bishops, p. 14. 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 209 

Church to hsten. Concessions must doubtless be made on 
both sides. On the part of the national Church the utmost 
which she could yield would be the recognition of Romish- 
American orders, and some trifling alterations of the ritual 
worship, in matters not affecting doctrine. With regard to 
the first of these concessions, it will l)e remembered, that 
though neither the American Church nor her English 
mother have ever departed from the good rule of '• two or 
more consecrators," yet it is only in her case a matter of 
discipline^ being 'bound by no councils or decretals, w^hile 
the act of union with her on the part of the Romanist so- 
ciety would repair the defect in the transmission of the line 
of succession through a schismatical body in England, pos- 
sessed by the Romish bishops and clergy ; who, on their 
part, must relinquish the dogma of the pope's supremacy, 
with all other doctrines not at present held in common by 
the two Churches. With this surrender, hypothetical ordi- 
nation would no doubt be deemed unnecessary, and their 
bishops could occupy sees ; the conforming clergy under 
them retaining their present parochial charges. 

That such an union, however desirable, cannot be effec- 
ted till a considerable change has been wrought in public 
opinion is self evident. The much abused " Oxford Tracts," 
and the discussions to which these publications have hap- 
pily for the cause of truth, given ri-se, are, however, doing 
much to enlighten the members of the American Church 
on the subject of catholicity ; and intercourse with protes- 
tants is gradually unloosening the prejudices of Romanists, 
and weakening their attachment to a foreign prelate, whose 
" infallibility " and " rightful supremacy as St. Peter's suc- 
cessor" (long discarded as a fable by intelligent Romanists 
m Germany and France) is disclaimed as an article of be- 
lief by every educated member of that communion in Amer- 
ica. I have myself heard it personally disavowed on re- 

14 



210 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

peated occasions. It is this dogma, in fact, which now 
stands in the way of union. Till the whole Roman Church 
alters, of course no particular branch* can make any essen- 
tial modifications in her system ; and while the pontiff re- 
tains his temporal sovereignty, reformation we may be sure 
■will never begin in corrupt Italy. Remove the Austrian 
bayonets, which now uphold the temporal throne of St. 
Peter's present successor, and away it will be carried by the 
mstantaneous sweep of popular invasion— the thing is 
inevitable ! With that event the figment of Roman su- 
premacy will disappear like a shadow of the night; the 
triple crown (blasphemous emblem) will be exchanged for 
the simple mitre, which irradiated the head of Clement, 
Cornelius, or Leo the Frst, in her earlier and purer days. 
The Church of Rome will not, God forbid that it should, 
become extinct, or shine with feeble lustre among the 
Churches of Christendom ; but purged of its dross and its 
tin, " its bishop" in the language of Bishop Whittingham, 
" the usurper of an unholy lordship over God's heritage 
will be driven back powerless to the narrow limits of his 
own true jurisdittion ;t the prestage of his usurped author- 
ity removed ; the Scriptures, which even now he is unable 
to keep from his people, will defeecate the doctrine of his 
subjects ; and the many valuable remnants of primitive 
simplicity, and earnestness, and zeal which still survive, 
like sparks of holy fire amid the ashes and rubbish of acr 
cumulated corruptions, may blaze forth, to give light and 
health, and the vigour of life to those purer forms of doc- 

* It is a favoural)le circumstance in connection with this question that the 
present " Archbishop of BaUimore," Dr. Eccleston, is a Jansonist, and in open 
hostility with the see of Rome. 

t Proved by Mr. Palmer in his Treatise on the Church, to have been bounded 
by the Alps. 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 211 

trine which are now too hke the Alpine snows in coldness 
as well as clarity.* 

Let then this wished for event transpire, and the 
Churches in those different countries of Europe and South 
America which are still cursed by thraldom to the Roman 
see, will doubtless make early use of their independence by 
banishing the corruptions which their connection with it 
introduced ; and like the Churches of England, Ireland, 
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, &c., at the period of their de- 
liverance, will take their stand on the ground of catholic 
and primitive verity. This result would reconcile all the 
discordant elements which now interrupt the peace and 
unity of the Church Militant, and unite the whole episco- 
pal family, Avhicli forms more than eleven-twelfths of the 
Christian World, into one great society : like as it was in 
the first six centuries of the Church's existence, till Romish 
usurpation disturbed its harmony. 

Such an event — and we cannot doubt that it is drawing 
near — by releasing the scattered members of the Romish 
Communion in countries where an apostolic Church exists 
from their allegiance to Rome, and the decisions of the 
Council of Trent, will naturally lead them, if proper means 
are employed, to seek communion with it ; nor can we sup- 
pose that such alliance will be, in any case, refused 

To prepare the way for this union in the United States, 
the members of her Church should cultivate a spirit and 
temper of kindness and conciliation towards the clergy and 
the numerous laity of the sister communion ; avoiding that 
uncharitable disposition which deals in nothing but anathe- 
mas, wholesale vituperation, or taunting ridicule ; which 
designates the Roman Church as unsound in every part of 
her system ; retaining as she does the same ministry, creeds, 

* This eloquent passage is contained in tlie bishop's introduction to the Amer- 
ican edition of Palmer's incomparable " Treatise on the Church." 



212 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

holy days (and with some additions) the same ritual as 
themselves ; or by going out of their way, and putting an 
unwarrantable interpretation on prophetic Scripture, — nick- 
naming her the " scarlet whore" of the Apocalypse, the 
"man of sin" etc., etc. "Oh no!" writes the excellent 
catholic-minded Bishop of Michigan in reference to these 
ribald attacks, " rather speak of her in kindness — thank her 
for the good she may have accomplished in preserving the 
Word of God — tell her of her faults — of her departure from 
the old Catholic Church — and endeavour to persuade her 
to give up the commandments of men, and come back to 
the uncorrupted Church of Christ. I pray ardently for this 
happy period to arrive, when she will give up her errors, 
and come with all her untiring energy, her patience under 
trial, and her self-sacrificing and self-denying priesthood, 
and unite in the great work of bringing the scattered sheep 
of Christ into one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ 
our Lord."* 

Let the sentiments of this distinguished prelate, so char- 
itably expressed, be carried out to the letter by every bishop, 
clergyman and layman of the American Church, and by 
every newspaper and periodical published under its sanc- 
tion, and the day is not far distant when the united Anglo 
and Romish American bodies will be cemented into one 
American Catholic Church; and like its common parent, 
the Church of England, enlighten the world by the purity 
of its doctrine, the lustre of its piety, and the universality 
of its missionary operations.t 

* " Bishops Successors of the Apostles," p. 33. 

+ Should the above views be pronounced Utopian by the English reader, the 
author begs to say that he is sustained in them by several distinguished author- 
ities in the American Church. One of these, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Farmer 
Jarvis, the Church's Historiographer, thus expresses himself in a pamphlet (the 
best that has been written on the subject) repelling the malignant charge brought 
against those who are labouring to bring the Church up to her proper position, 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 213 

and to exhibit her in her true character, as moulded by the Reformers, by car- 
rying out her own excellent provisions, of a leaning to " popery :" 

" There is a large and increasing body of American citizens, who are now in 
communion with the see of Rome; and upon this body, an increasing number 
of bishops and clergy exert a most untiring energy to make them in all respects 
submissive to the decrees of the papacy. They arc aided by large sums received 
from Europe, with which they are erecting churches, colleges, and monasteries. 
The greater part of their bishops and clergy are foreigners by birth and educa- 
tion, brought up under political influences, very different from the institutions 
of our own republic. I except not even Ireland; for the Irish as a nation are 
opposed to the English rule, and are therefore willing to subject themselves to 
an Ecclesiastical domination in their own communion, from the exercise of which 
the spirit of an American citizen must and will revolt. 

" The present Roman Catholic population in this country, consists in a very 
large proportion of adopted citizens. Here they are neither tolerated nor perse- 
cuted. They are not tolerated because they enjoy equal rights with all other 
classes of professing Christians. They are not persecuted unless it be occasion- 
ally by a lawless mob. Their feelings therefore must necessarily become kind- 
er ; and their children, being educated among the children of other denomina- 
tions of Christians, will not feel such horror of them as they might under other 
circumstances. Then comes the general effect of learning, the unrestrained 
freedom of opinion, and the occasional intermarriages and other alliances, which 
must and do take place. 

" Now, under all these influences will it be possible for the Roman Cathohc 
clergy to bring up their laity to the ultra notions of the Jesuits and the Court 
of Rome 1 I trow not. At the most, they will only get them up, I mean the 
intelligent part of them, to the standard of Bossuct, and the liberties of the 
Gallican Church. I doubt even whether, under the influence of our institu- 
tions, they will be made to ascend higher in the shades of opinion, than the 
schools of Port Royal, Pascal, Arnauld Nicole, and the divines of Louvain. 

" It is evident that the scandals which in Italy are seen in the glare of day, 
are here kept carefully out of sight. Their clergy in general lead exemplary 
lives. The truly catholic doctrines held by the Church of Rome are promi- 
nently brought forward, and those which in reality are heretical, are softened 
and explained away. 

" For all this I rejoice Its effect upon the laity of their communion must be 
salutary. And I am neither sorry nor alarmed when I hear them telling their 
laity, that we are advancing towards them. If they think that we are advanc- 
ing nearer to them than the Church of England was at the lime of the Reformation 
it is the effect of their ignorance. If, on the other hand, they do not think so, 
but merely profess to think so, in order that they may divide and conquer us, 
they only use the same stratagem which the Jesuits used at the Reformation. 



214 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

The present stratagem may, for the time, have the same effect as the former. It 
may frighten a few timid, unstable and ignorant souls to forsake the straight 
and middle way, and be swallowed up by the Scylla and Charibdis on either 
shore ; but it cannot have the effect upon us which it was designed to have. 
The mischief will recoil upon themselves. It will dispose the laity of their com- 
munion, to regard us as their brethren ; and although the time may be yet dis- 
tant, when the convulsions of Europe will sap the Papal Throne to its over- 
throw, there may in the meanwhile be a gradual preparation of hearts and minds, 
which will ultimately lead to a blessed harmony. 

"A great American Catholic Church, equally removed from the extremes of 
popery and puritanism ! What a glorious object for the American Christian's 
contemplation ! ! Let us hope the present agitation will only render truth 
clearer and hearts kinder. Let us hope that, being united in one holy commu- 
nion, having one Lord, one faith, one baptism, we as the American people may 
go forth under the banners of our divine Lord ' to the breaking down of the 
kingdom of sin, Satan, and death ; till at length the whole of God's dispersed 
sheep, being gathered into one fold, shall become partakers of everlasting life, 
through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour.' " — No Union with 
Rome, p. 43. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

SUPPLEMENTARY TO THE LAST. 

Thou canst not, Cardinal, devise a name 
So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous, 
To charge me to an answer, as the pope ! 
Tell him this tale * * * 

* * * that no Italian bishop 

Shall tythe or toll in our dominions. 
But, as we, under Heaven, our supreme head 
So, under him, that grxat " suprenuu-ij" 
Whom we do serve, we will alone uphold ; 
Without the assistance of a mortal hand. 
So tell the pope ; all reverence set apart 
To him, and his usurp'd authority. 

Shakespeare. 

Those readers, by whom the circumstance of Bishop 
Kenrick's letter to the American Hierarchy, mentioned in 
the last chapter, may be regarded (and truly so) as a signifi- 
cant " sig-71 of the tiines'^ will not be uninterested to learn 
something of the terms in wliich it was responded to by 
the important body to whom the Bishop of Arath [pennissu 
superiorum) addressed himself. The prelates who for- 
mally replied to the popish legate were New Jersey, Mary- 
land, Vermont, Illinois, and the presiding bishop. It must 
be confessed that these answers were not, except in the lat- 
ter instance, couched in such courteous terms as the Romish 
bishop employs. Each, however, contained unanswerable 
replies to the exceedingly shallow arguments contained in 
the '■'• Call to Union." The following are extracts from the 
Bishop of New Jersey's letter : — 

" The ' Lettei on Christian Union,' addressed to ' The 
Right Reverend Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the United States, by the Right Rev. Francis Patrick 



216 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Kenrick, Bishop of Arath,' calling himself ' coadjutor of the 
Bishop of Philadelphia' was received, by mail. It needed 
but a glance to see that this was but another form of the 
' old trick ;' so clumsily played, that it must frustrate its 
own purpose, and ' return to plague the inventor.' 

" Let it be thought by none that he is rash, in charging 
schism against the author of the 'Letter on Christian 
Union.' It lies upon the very title page ! ' Letter on 
Christian Union, addressed to the Bishops of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, by the Right Rev. Francis Patrick Ken- 
rick, Bishop of Arath.' All well enough, so far. But what 
follows, ' and coadjutor of the Bishop of Philadelphia,' is 
unmitigated schism. — There needs no question here as to 
the aged bishop now a resident in Rome, whose coadjutor 
Bishop Kenrick claims to be ? The question is, what busi- 
ness has the Bishop of Arath in the city of Philadelphia ? 
Is it not against all catholic rule that two bishops should 
exercise their functions in one city, unless one be assistant 
to the other ? Was there not a bishop having jurisdiction 
in Philadelphia, in 1808, when ' the Diocess of Philadel- 
phia,' so called, ' was created ?' Was not the second bishop, 
called by whatever name in partibus infidelium, an 
intruder there? Does not the Bishop of Arath, claiming 
jurisdiction, or exercising functions in the diocess of Penn- 
sylvania, convict himself before the world, and in the sight 
of God, of schism, and worse ?" 
* * # * * ##**#* 

" Enough is cited now to prove, that neither the Right Rev. 
Henry Conwell, D.D., nor the Right Rev. Francis Patrick 
Kenrick, D.D. has any business whatever in the diocess of 
Pennsylvania, unless they are summoned ; and that the 
sooner the latter of them betakes himself to his proper 
bishopric of Arath — which he has probably not yet visited 
— the better. 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 217 

" We pass on to the ' Letter on Christian Union ;' a 
strange topic for a schismatic in the diocess of a catholic 
bishop, and irresistably suggesting the quotation : 

" Q,uis tuterit Gracchos de seditione querentes ?" 

Which may be freely rendered : 

How strange, a schismatic should rail at schism !" 

" It is as poor a proof of self-respect, as of the estimation 
in which we are held by him, that Bishop Kenrick speaks 
of ' other serious difficulties in the way of union,' which it 
were ' premature to treat on this occasion,' besides the doc- 
trinal concessions and ecclesiastical admissions, which he 
calls on us to make. When he has brought us to renounce 
the faith of Cranmer, Cyprian, Ignatius, Paul, ' the faith 
once delivered to the saints,' and embraces the gross cor- 
ruptions which were mingled in the festering and ferment- 
ing caldron mixed and stirred at Trent, and to recognize 
the Bishop of Rome as ' the true vicar of Christ, and head 
of the whole Church, and the father and teacher of all 
Christians,' the ' personal interests and claims, which are at 
stake,' will not detain us long. God forbid that we should 
glory ! But, before that time comes, God grant that these 
our bodies, may be ' given to be burned ! ' In the mean 
time, permit me simply to inquire, by what right you, or 
any of, or even all, your colleagues, make these overtures 
to us ? Who authorised you to answer for ' the Father of 
the Faithful ?' Who made the servant free to give the 
invitations of his master's house ? Nay, by what right do 
you, the inferior and vassal of the pope, approach us, bish- 
ops of the Catholic Church of Christ ; and so — saving the 
reverence due to occupancy of the see in which the apostles 
laboured, preached and died — the equals of the Bishop of 
Rome; and, therefore, your superiors? We are no vicars 
of the Apostolic See as you are ; but vicars of the Lord of 



218 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Heaven and earth. We claim no personal regard, but 
humbly wash your feet, as well becomes us. But if you 
touch our office, if you trench upon our trust, which we 
received from Christ, and hold for Him and Him alone, we 
plainly say to you, that, if the Bishop of Rome, our fellow 
bishop, be your superior, you may choose what name or 
place you will, but bishops in the catholic sense, as we are, 
we allow you not to be. 

" To any proper communication which the Bishop of 
Rome shall ever make to the bishops of the Church in the 
United States of America, his office and their own will be 
a certain guarantee of due reception, and respectful answer. 
To such an invitation as the " Bishop of Arath" undertakes 
to make for him, we reply not at all ! We respect our 
order — we revere the catholic doctrine — we reverence the 
Word of God too much ! We place ourselves at once upon 
the ground of ephesus, and utterly repudiate an interfer- 
ence so insulting ! We are freemen — born free. — We che- 
rish, as a sacred trust, for those that shall come after us, 
that liberty, wherewith our Lord Jesus Christ, the deliverer 
of all men, has endowed us by his own blood. We are 
bishops of the Church of God ; and recognising no higher 
office in the Church save His who is the " shepherd, and 
bishop of souls" we " give place" to the Bishop of Rome, 
" by subjection, no, not for an hour." 

******* 

" Not knowing what my brethren the bishops of the 
" Protestant Episcopal Church" in the United States, to 
whom it is also addressed, may say to your extraordinary 
proposition to become romanists, I have the honour of 
returning you the following answer for myself: 

" That brancli of the Holy Catholic Church, (not No- 
man) in America, whose bishops you have thought proper 
to address, and invite to leave their parent and primitive 



" ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 219 

Stock, the Vine Christ Jesus, whose only ' Husbandman is 
God the Father,' to be engrafted in the Roman Church, is 
cherished by the blood of her martyrs. You cannot be 
ignorant that we are all deeply conscious of the fact of 
these martyrs having died rather than own the corrupted 
creed of the Romish Church, or submit to the usurpation 
of her self-created pontiff. That it should ever have en- 
tered your mind to invite us to return to that Church and 
submit to their hierarchy, seems stranger ; and that we 
should do it with our eyes shut, and our tongues tied, in 
obedience to your invitation, is no compliment to our un- 
derstanding, and no evidence of your humility." 

The following morceau from the Bishop of Illinois is 
sufficiently characteristic : 

" You are pleased to say that ' you cannot come beyond 
the precincts of the [Romish] Church to reach us in our 
present position, and therefore from afar you raise your 
voice' to make us hear your entreaties to come to the pope. 

" Now, right rev. sir, we would spare you the trouble of 
raisiiig your voice any higher, by answering fortliwith 
that ice do hear ; and beg leave to assure you that you 
being afar off from us might be matter of regret were we 
acquainted with your personal and private virtues ; but as 
this is not our happy lot — as we know you only by your 
present raised voice afar off : inviting us (I cannot say 
tempting us) to commit a great sin by acknowledging a 
spiritual monarch, in calling the pope our master, when 
Jesus Christ is our only universal bishop, as He and He 
only was such to the apostles and first bishops of the 
Church in the primitive days, we confess we do not regret 
your distance from us. If you must ' raise your voice ' 
and cry aloud to us on a subject so repugnant to our con- 
science and so abhorrent to our feelings, we can only ex- 



220 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

press our sincere wishes that the distance between us were 
much greater than it is." 

It is, at least, just to Bishop Kenrick to add that, how- 
ever his right reverend opponents might suspect him of 
dishonesty in his mode of approaching them, he did it in 
all good faith. He is a gentleman of great Christian vir- 
tues ; and would surely not intentionally deceive. His let- 
ter only shows to what an extent all parties in the Christian 
world— even the Romish adherents — have been misled and 
hood-winked in reference to what is called " the Oxford 
movement ;" and how universally the falsehood of the 
semi-dissenting organs within our own communion, (backed 
as they are in their unfounded assertions by the political 
press) has succeeded in confounding the sound and healthy 
reformation going on in the Church, in a return to true 
protestaiit principles, with the extravagant acts, or the 
apostacy to Rome of some six or eight half-read or light- 
headed divines. The following is Dr. Kenrick's notice of 
the severe attacks of the protestant bishops : — 

" All this ire was excited by a letter — calm, courteous, af- 
fectionate — inviting to union and peace. Nothing on the 
face of it was alleged to be disrespectful ; but it was intol- 
erable boldness in a catholic prelate to invite protestant 
episcopal bishops to abandon their peculiar doctrines and 
claims, even though one of their own body had seriously 
advised us, in violation of our solemn oaths and steadfast 
convictions, to renounce our obedience to the successor of 
St. Peter. My sincerity was denied, and the letter was 
considered as ironical. I took them to be hypocrites. I 
called on them to become traitors. Did Bishop Hopkins 
think us capable of perjury, when he urged us to vindicate 
our independence of pontifical authority ? I can solemnly 
aver that I wrote that letter in all sincerity, and without 
any design of calling in question the sincerity of those 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 221 

whom I addressed. The advances made at Oxford, with 
some correspondmg symptoms hei'e, raised some faint liope 
within my bosom ; and I fancied that there might be some 
one among the protestant episcopal bishops, who, seeing the 
progress to the ancient faith in the parent country, might 
have some yearnings after union. Bishop Smith had de- 
plored the evils of schism, and extolled the blessings of uni- 
ty, and invited the examination and full development of his 
principles, which he professed himself desirous of carrying 
out to their legitimate consequences. I had shewed their 
just application ; and my letter was favourably noticed in 
a paper published under his eye, and no answer was ever 
attempted. Might not he, or some other one, be secretly 
mourning over the ruins of Sion, and praying that the walls 
of Jerusalem may be built up ? I hoped against hope, and 
concluded that my appeal woidd be, at least, an evidence of 
the desire of one catholic bishop — which I was persuaded 
w^as common to all — to procure a re-union at any sacrifice 
but that of principle ; and would throw on the protestant 
bishops the responsibihty of defeating the good work, to 
which things appeared to dispose the minds of men." 

The quiet irony which twice discovers itself in this para- 
graph, applied to the sobriquet of the American Church, 
is the only thing in the Romanist doctor's letter worthy of 
notice ; beyond the sincerity claimed for his original inten- 
tions, which no one can doubt. It must be admitted that 
the tautological blunder contained under this clumsy title 
is not less absurd than the negative prefix of " protestant," 
used (in this case) in contradistinction to the term catholic. 
Both were unwisely adopted, against Bishop Seabury's 
judgment, by the Convention of 1789 in compliance with 
the demands of certain radical delegates from Virginia and 
the South ; and were deemed in the then state of religious 
feeling in the United States, as due, in courtesy, to the 



222 ECCLESIiiSTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Other " ecclesiastical" bodies of the country. Such squeam- 
ishness was, however, wholly uncalled for, as, besides the 
assumption of the title " Holy Catholic Church in the United 
States" by the Romish intruders, the various dissenting 
bodies adopted respectively such as the following — " Chris- 
tians," (a Socinian baptist sect) " Primitive Christians," (a 
methodist sect) " Disciples," etc., the congregationalists re- 
taining their title of " the Standing Order." The tender- 
ness shown for the scruples and feelings of sectarians who 
themselves adopted titles no less "arrogant" than that of 
" The American Church," or " The Church of the United 
States," was surely morbid ; and the result at this day, in 
the ignorant misconception of terms, and the handle afford- 
ed to the papal agents in America against the "catholic" 
claims of her apostolic Church, prove too truly that there 
is something " in a name.^'' The evil, however, is easy 
of cure. 

As Bishop Griswold's response to his schismatical brother 
prelate's invitation to " union " was introduced in a work 
on the Reformation, published in numbers, and only com- 
pleted just before his sudden death, it will form a suitable 
appendix to this. A few days after these catholic sen- 
tences which follow were written, but before they passed 
through the press, the hand which penned them was cold 
in death. 

" The Reformation has evidently produced some refor- 
mation in the Church of Rome. Compare the inorals of 
the court of Rome with what they were during the three 
centuries previous, and you will be svnprised at the con- 
trast ! The power of the court has been very much 
diminished. The thunders of the Vatican, at which the 
world then trembled, are now heard with pity, mingled with 
contempt. That infernal and horrid machine of popery, 
THE INQUISITION, wc trust in God will not much more be 



"ROMAN catholic" SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 223 

tolerated ! That lucrative traffic, the sale of indul- 
gences, has, 171 consequence of the Reformation^ became 
comparatively an unprofitable business. The ungodly 
spirit, and bloody hand of persecution have been very 
much restrained ; and toleration, on true Christian princi- 
ples is, happily, very much increased. In this good work, 
the Reformation has uniformly taken the lead, and is now 
far ahead. The true spirit of missions, and efforts to con- 
vert the heathen, not by carnal weapons, or by hiding or 
perverting the truth — but by that " sword of the Spirit, 
which is the Word of God," teaching man generally the 
doctrines of Jesus Christ, and him crucified, is also among 
the noble fruits of the Reformation. The preaching of 
the Roman clergy has been changed for the better, espe- 
cially in protestant countries. They now preach less of 
saints and relics, of masses and purgatory, of popes and 
" mother Church," and more of Christ. * * * 

" Should any one ask — seeing the Church of Rome has, 
in some degree, reformed — why we should not, as the 
Bishop of Arath urges, " return to it?" I answer : — 

" First. It is a reformation forced upon it. The Ro- 
manists Avill tell you themselves that they ' never change !' 
and, 

" Secondly. Why should we go to them ? Rather they 
reject their errors, and unite with us. Have we not the 
words of eternal life ? 

" Thirdly. We never have departed from the One 
Catholic, and Apostolic Church, We have merely rejected 
what is unscriptural, superstitious, etc., etc. 

" Fourthly. We would gladly, and are ready, to unite 
with them and all Christians in whatever " is good unto 
the use of edifying," and according to the word of God ; 
but— 

Fifthly. To unite with any Christains in what is erro- 



224 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

neous or unscriptural, is going — not to the true Catholic 
Church, but from it."* 

May we not hope — nay without enthusiasm beheve, — 
that the day may not be very distant when these words of 
the meek successor of " the beloved disciple" will prove 
prophetic ; in the return of the apostatized adherents of 
an intruding see — drawn by the cords of love, and the ac- 
cents of affectionate conciliation — to the bosom of the 
Catholic Church of America ; and when their incontro- 
vertible TRUTH will find a home in every breast now 
enthralled by the claims — unfounded and vain — of a dis- 
tant power, whose rule and corrupted doctrine are incom- 
patible both with their own religious position, and the due 
liberty of American citizenship ? 

* The Reformation p. 126. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

DR. HENSHAW. — DR. DORR. FEMALE HIGH SCHOOL. 

RETURN TO NEW YORK. 

Before leaving Baltimore I had an opportunity of hear- 
ing Dr. Henshaw the rector of St. Peter's, now Bishop of 
Rhode Island. The congregation, though on a week day, 
was as large as the building would accommodate. Dr. H. 
showed great skill in treating his subject, which was on the 
practical effect of soundness in doctrine : a most important 
subject, less regarded both in America and England than it 
ought to be. The sermon was extempore throughout, and 
in the best style of pulpit address. With a portly figure 
and prepossessing countenance. Dr. Henshaw combines a 
fine voice and fluent utterance. His idiom is not loose^ nor 
marked by the vulgarisms, and entire want of dignity 
which American extempore preachers in the non-episcopal 
denominations frequently exhibit. I met with a remarkable 
instance of this style while on a subsequent visit to Balti- 
more, in a preacher named Knapp, who was conducting a 
" protracted meeting" at the " First Baptist" meeting house, 
in Lombard Street. He was a man of uncommon powers, 
and skilled in all the tricks of popular oratory, which he 
practised with the most complete success. He preached 
every day, and three times on Sundays for a number of 
weeks, drawing the whole city to the meeting house. A 
church adjoining was even closed, from the temporary de- 
sertion of the worshippers to listen to the exhibitions of the 

15 



226 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

revivalist preacher, and the number of communicants ad- 
ded to the society, on whose behalf the visit was made, 
was more than quadrupled. His sermons, though frequent- 
ly admirable, and well adapted to a mixed auditory, were 
sometimes marred by the grossest vulgarisms which even 
bordered on profanity. Puns, low proverbs, familiar anec- 
dotes, and dialogues would succeed each other, accompanied 
with gestures, in which the action was suited to the word ; 
exciting alternate risibility and sensation, and lowering the 
pulpit to the level of the stage, making " the judicious 
grieve." 

I left Baltimore for Philadelphia on Saturday the 28th. 
It was a week most agreeably spent ; and I carried away 
with me the pleasantest impressions of the place and its 
society. I have since had numerous opportunities of im- 
proving my knowledge of both, which is only necessary to 
confirm the best impressions. 

Philadelphia, St. Simon and St. Jiide. — In the morn- 
ing T was attracted by the bells of Christ Church, to that 
venerable edifice. It stands in the old part of the city, and 
is nearly a century and a half old, resembling the large 
city churches of England in its general air and internal 
appointments. Christ Church parish has existed from A.D. 
1691, and was the cathedral church during Bishop White's 
administration of the diocess. The gilt mitre still orna- 
ments its graceful spire. 

Dr. Benjamin Dorr, the present rector, is a member of 
the Standing Committee of Pennsylvania, an attractive 
preacher, and an author of considerable repute. " Tlie 
Churchmaivs Manual," one of the best treatises on the 
doctrine and government of the Church which has made 
its appearance in the United States, is from his pen. It 
contains an admirable defence of diocesan episcopacy, and 
liturgical worship, and is well adapted to put into the 



BURLINGTON. 227 

hands of inquirers into the scriptural and primitive author- 
ity for our distinctive principles. The sermon this morning 
was a missionary one. and was responded to by a liberal 
offering from a large congregation. 

I spent the afternoon and evening at the house of the 
Rev. Charles Alden, in Spruce-street, principal of the Phil- 
adelphia High School for young ladies. The establish- 
ment is a favourable specimen of similar institutions in the 
United States, its general plan being similar to a college ; 
the pupils are carried through every branch of useful and 
ornamental study, including mathematics, natural philoso- 
phy, and the classics, and receive a certificate on the com- 
pletion of their term of residence. The teachers, and sev- 
eral of the pupils in this school are highly accomplished, 
and everything in the establishment appeared to be admi- 
rably conducted.* 

On Tuesday I left Philadelphia by the steamboat, and 
had the opportunity, which my night-journey thither had 
prevented, of seeing some of the objects on the first part of 
my way. The banks of the river Delaware above the city, 
are embellished with numerous farm houses and country 
seats, their gardens and lawns sloping to the water's edge. 
Twenty miles from the city, on the right, Burlington, the 
see town of the diocess of New Jersey, appears in sight. It 
is regularly laid out, and the " Bank" extending along two- 
thirds of the city exhibits a great variety of handsome 
dwellings, neat villas, cottages, etc. The most conspicuous 
amongst these is the episcopal residence, which vies with 
several English country seats of the medium class. The 
New Jersey bishop's expansive doors, communicating with 
the entrance hall are always open in fine weather, to the 
verdant bank, with its gravelled carriage way, and the 

* Mr. Alden has since accepted a chaplaincy in the navy, and the institution 
is under a different presidency. 



228 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

wide bosom of the lovely Delaware, whose ripples wash the 
beach within twenty miles of the house. The building is 
a combination of different early styles, with a cross on the 
highest turret. The grounds attached to it are well laid out 
in English fashion, and everything in, and about the estab- 
lishment, gives proof of the well-known taste of its propri- 
etor. Just beyond the bishop's house, the front of St. 
Mary's Hall appears from between the trees. This is one 
of those designs for the religious and intellectual improve- 
ment of the rising generation, which the enterprising bishop 
has brought to maturity in his diocess. The object is to 
conduct female education on a Christian foundation, and 
the principles of the Church. Bishop Brownell of Con- 
necticut some time ago declared, " that he considered fe- 
niale seminaries under the auspices of the Church hardly 
less important than chartered colleges ;" and such is becom- 
ing the established sentiment in the United States. The 
present enterprise of Bishop Doane has already been sin- 
gularly successful. With the best teachers in every de- 
partment of science, literature, and the fine arts, that could 
be procured in the country, and a clerical principal and 
chaplain, and under episcopal supervision, St. Mary's is tru- 
ly a CHRISTIAN HOUSEHOLD for the future mothers of 
New Jersey, for which the community are, and will be, un- 
der unspeakable obligations to the excellent prelate, its 
founder. 

A little further, on the Pennsylvania side of the river, is 
the town of Bristol. It was incorporated by Sir William 
Keith in 1722, under this name, having been previously 
called Buckingham. After leaving several passengers at 
Burlington, the boat crossed over to Bristol to land several 
more, and receive others ; it then pursued its way to Bor- 
dentown, thirty miles from Philadelphia, where we took the 
railway cars. It was at this place that Joseph Buonaparte 



RETURN TO NEW YORK. 229 

took up his residence in America. His fine establishment 
is now running rapidly to seed, and bears everywhere marks 
of neglect and dilapidation. Forty -five miles, the distance 
across the sterile plains of New Jersey, had now to be trav- 
ersed ; which, with the exception of the two thriving vil- 
lages of Hightstown, and Spottswood, where the train stop- 
ped, presented no object worth noticing. At South Amboy 
we took the steamboat for New York : the trip having oc- 
cupied me eighteen days. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

BOARDING-HOUSE LIFE. GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1838. 

COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 

The time passed in New- York, before sailing, and after 
my return from England (where I spent the Christmas of 
1837*) gave me an opportunity of improving my knowledge 
of that city, and its agreeable society. None enjoy them- 
selves more, and enter into the social amusements of the 
winter season with greater zest, than the New-Yorkers. 
The boarding-house in which 1 was quartered, in Murray 
street, was a favourable example of a mode of living pecu- 
liar to the United States. The house was of the largest 
size, being, in fact, two (double fronted, four story) houses, 
communicating on each landing, and accommodating about 
fifty boarders ; principally single young men, professional 
characters, and store keepers, some being married people. 
The charge for board and lodging depends upon the floor ^ 
and the number of chambers occupied, graduating from six 
dollars a week to twenty-five. Meals were taken in a ca- 
pacious dining room on the first floor,! which, like the other 
public rooms, was furnished in a style of elegance and 
luxury. The table afforded every variety ; wines of all 
kinds were furnished if wanted ; the servants were numer- 
ous and civil, and the whole establishment was like that of 
a large well-regulated family. The lady at the head of 

* See Appendix No. II. 

t Called the "second-floor" in America. 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1838. 231 

this household was a strict churchwoman, and a communi- 
cant of Grace church, under the pastoral care of Dr. Lyall, 
a clergyman of long standing in New York. The regular 
attendance of our hostess, with her family, on public wor- 
ship operated favourably on her boarders, many of whom 
frequented the same church. This boarding-house was 
much patronized by clergymen visiting the city, which 
made it additionally agreeable. 

Ecclesiastically, New York is by far the most important 
place in the United States. The parishes are thirty-one in 
number, one of which (Trinity) is the richest religious cor- 
poration in the country, holding several tracts of city land, 
the ground-rents of which yield a large annual sum. There 
are two chapels of ease belonging to the parish, besides the 
church, now erecting at a cost of half a million dollars. 

On the fifth of September the General Convention of the 
American Church assembled in Philadelphia, which I was 
(sorely against my inclination) prevented from attending. 
The most important act was the appointment of the Rev. 
Leonidas Polk to the office of " Missionary Bishop'' to the 
southwestern territory of the country, south of 36^° with 
the title of " Bishop of Arkansas ;" the jurisdiction of the 
first missionary bishop* to be confined north of that line. 
Indiana, though not a territory, was at the same time placed 
under the jurisdiction of the latter. It was also provided 
" that in case of the death or resignation of a missionary 
bishop the Presiding Bishop of the Church shall be, and is 
hereby authorised to request one of the neighbouring bish- 
ops to take charge of the vacant missionary episcopate un- 
til the meeting of the next General Convention." 

Dr. Kemper's appointment, in 1835, had been followed 
by the best results ! From one missionary who was toiling 
single and unaided in his wide field of labour at the time 
* Kemper. 



232 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

of the bishop's removal thither, an increase had been effect- 
ed of twelve settled clergymen, and more than thirty con- 
gregations. The Indians had been visited, and many con- 
verts made amongst them to the catholic faith. 

It was also determined to add to the foreign missionaries 
by sending two to Constantinople, another to the one al- 
ready in China, another to Cape Palmas, and another to 
Texas. Three new canons were passed, and seven old 
ones amended. Of the former, the first made candidates 
for orders ineligible to seats in the General Convention ; 
the second related to the organizing of new diocesses out of 
existing diocesses, and the third to repealed canons.* 

The Bishop of Ohio, on behalf of a committee appointed 
on the subject of emigrating to and from foreign Churches, 
reported " that it is absolutely essential to the proper dis- 
cipline of this Church, that no clergyman from a foreign 
(episcopal) Church, should be received into union with any 
diocess in these United States, except he bring a regular 
and formal dismissory letter from the foreign bishop whose 
diocess he was last connected with ; and further, that when 
so received, he should be regarded on all sides as having 
entirely passed from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the 
bishop from whom the letter dismissory is brought, to that 
of the bishop by whom it is accepted ; and further, that 
in the opinion of this House no such clergyman, or any 
other, desirous of passing from the Church in these United 
States to that of any foreign state, ought to be received by 
any foreign bishop into connection with his diocess, except 
upon the receipt of a regular and formal dismissory letter 
from the bishop within whose jurisdiction he was last con- 
nected here ; and that when thus accepted, and only then, 
he be considered as discharged from all obligations of a 
canonical obedience to the discipline of this Church." 
* See Appendix. 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1838. 233 

Whereupon the Presiding Bishop was appointed to enter 
into correspondence with tlie different foreign primates, for 
the purpose of arranging as soon as possible a general con- 
currence in the above regulations, and to report to the 
House of Bishops at the next General Convention. 

Incipient measures were also taken for the formation 
of a Bible Society in connection with the Church, which 
design was perfected at the General Convention of 1844. 

The convention also ratified the act of dividing New 
York state into two diocesses. 

The Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis, D.D., L.L.D. was appointed 
"Historiographer of the Church," with a view "to his pre- 
paring from the most original sources now extant, a faith- 
ful Ecclesiastical History, reaching from the apostles' times 
to the formation of the Protestant Epsicopal Church in the 
United States ;" and Dr. Francis Hawkes, the " Conserva- 
tor" of all the books, pamphlets, manuscripts, &c., of the 
Church, was requested " to prepare at his earliest conve- 
nience a condensed view of the documents he has collect- 
ed, so as to form a connected history of the latter." 

The bishops on first coming together at this Convention 
adopted the following resolutions : 

" Resolved^ That in organising the House of Bishops for 
the business of another Convention, we cannot refrain from 
the expression of the lively sensibility which we feel at the 
loss of our venerable brother, who has so long presided 
over our deliberations. 

" Resolved, That we shall ever cherish an affectionate 
remembrance of the person and services of our deceased 
brother, the Rt. Rev. William White, D.D. ; grateful to 
Almighty God for his long continued usefulness to the 
Church, and mindful of the bright example he has left us, 
in the purity of his life, the integrity of his purposes, the 



234 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES, 

wisdom and moderation of his counsel, and the benignity of 
his entire character." 

The General Theological Seminary at New York is a 
fine Church institution, which I occasionally visited, and 
where I formed an intimacy with several of the students, 
whom I found indefatigable scholars. It was first estab- 
lished through the instrumentality of the late Bishop Ho- 
bart, about twenty years ago, as a divinity school. All 
the bishops of the Church are trustees ; the professorships, 
five. There are also twelve handsomely endowed scholar- 
ships. The requirements for admission are, evidences of 
being a candidate for orders, and a college diploma, — or the 
test of an examination in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, with 
natural and moral philosophy, and rhetoric. To the latter, 
Sallust, Virgil, Cicero, the Gospels, and Zenophon's Cyro- 
poedia, and the three first books of Homer are sufficient. 
There are three classes (senior, middle, and junior) ; and 
at the completion of the Avhole course the student receives a 
testimonial of the same signed by the professors, and coun- 
tersigned by any number of the trustees. The whole ex- 
pense of the three years, including board, washing, fuel, 
lights, etc., can be comprised within a hundred pounds. 

The seminary buildings are of stone, in the plain Gothic 
style, and contain the usual departments of private recita- 
tion rooms, library, chapel, refectory, and professors' apart- 
ments; it is built for 104 students. A prospect of great 
beauty is commanded from the windows of the swelling 
bosom of the Hudson River, and the opposite shores of New 
Jersey. 

On Thursday, October the 2nd, I witnessed the " Com- 
mencement" of Columbia College, another Church institu- 
tion, which Mr. Bristed, in his elaborate work entitled 
" America and her resources," says " ought to surpass any 
other college in the Union." Yale and Harvard, however, 



COLUMBIA COLLEGE. 235 

have double the number of students. To give the reader 
some idea of college pageants in the United States, I will 
present the order observed on this occasion. The proces- 
sion moved from College Green at 9 a. m. and proceeded 
to Trinity church as follows : — 

Janitor of the College 

Students of Arts 

Candidates for Bachelor's Degrees 

Bachelors of Arts 

Candidates for Master's Degrees 

Masters of Arts 

Members of various Societies 

Students of the General Theological Seminary 

Principal of the Public Schools 

Teachers of the Grammar Schools of the College 

Graduates of the Colleges 

Faculty of Arts of the College 

President of the College 

Trustees 

Governor of the State 

Lieutenant Governor 

Members of the Legislature 

The Mayor 

Foreign Ministers 

Judges of the different Courts 

City Members of Congress 

Strangers of Distinction 

Foreign Consuls 

City Corporation 

Bishop of the diocess 

The Reverend, the Clergy 

Professors of the Theological Seminary 

Officers of the State 

City and County Officers. 



236 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

The exercises in the Church opened with a prayer by 
the president, Dr. Duer ; the candidates for the degree 
Artimn Baccalmireus next pronounced speeches and re- 
ceived medals. Other students then received the degree 
Artlimi Magister. Some honorary degrees were conferred ; 
the Valedictory spoken by a graduate ; and the proceedings 
closed with the benediction. 

The candidates for degrees on this, as on all similar oc- 
casions in the United States, wore under graduates' gowns, 
which is the only time they are used, and the principal of- 
ficers their appropriate college costume, which is the same 
in each university where any habit is used. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

PHILADELPHIA. DR. TYNG. JOURNEY TO THE INTE- 
RIOR. LEWISTOWN. HARRISBURGH. SETTLEMENT 

IN MY SECOND PARISH, 

Proud Susquehanna ! Thou art still untamed: 

Art fails thy noble features to subdue 

Since first the red man thy wild waters named, 

Or on thy bosom plied his light canoe. 

Small change is thine — tho' man has snatched thy vales 

To build his cities, and his fields to spread. 

Yet all in vain, presumptuous art assails 

Thy mountain borders, and thy rocky bed. 

Small change is thine — yet, River, thou hast seen 

Races and nations perish on thy shores. 

But what to thee is man 1 all he has been. 

Or all he loves, possesses, or deplores 1 

Ephemeral man ! Thou seest him pass away, 

While thy enduring youth time cannot sear. 

He labours, loves, and weeps his little day 

And lo ! he is not — and yet thou still art here 

Here, in the unmarr'd wilderness of thy prime : 

No imprint of thy Maker's hand defaced 

In all thy lineaments unchanged by time, 

The finger of Omnipotence is traced. 

Adieu bright River — memory shall the while, 

Oft bring thy deep blue waters to my dreams ; 

Each frowning border, and each flowering isle, 

And eddies dancing in tlie noonday beams. 

I REMAINED soHie time in New York, in hopes of ob- 
taining a parochial charge in the south of that state, where 
some friends of a younger sister who had accompanied me 
on my return to America, resided. By the bishop's invita- 
tion I waited over the meeting of the diocesan Convention, 
now at hand, in the prospect of a vacancy occurring. In 
this I was disappointed, and therefore removed to Penn- 
sylvania, recommended by the bishop to the Rev. Dr. J)e- 
lancey, rector of St. Peter's in Philadelphia. 



238 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

My stay in Philadelphia introduced me to several of the 
clergy, among whom, besides the rector of St. Peter's. 
Messrs. Dorr and Clemson gave me encouragement to 
settle in the diocess. Dr. Delancey interested himself to 
procure me a parish just vacant in Wyoming Valley, but 
an incumbent had been appointed on the very day of his 
application ; I therefore determined on making a tour into 
the interior of the state, to which my clerical friends fur- 
nished me W' ith letters. 

The evening before my departure I received high grati- 
fication from listening to a distinguished preacher and 
polemic in the person of Dr. Tyng, rector of the Epiphany. 
This gentleman enjoys a large share of public esteem on 
account of his independence of thought and action ; refus- 
ing to be fettered by any party shackles in pursuing a 
course, which frequently places him in a situation equally 
removed from the two parties which are represented, 
(though in very unequal proportions,) in the American 
Church. Like a distinguished legal nobleman, in his par- 
liamentary course, all questions are judged of by their in- 
herent merit, without reference to the school or faction 
whence they emanate, and are supported or opposed accord- 
ingly. 

The church of the Epiphany is externally one of the 
handsomest in the city, with a large portico in front, sup- 
ported by a double row of pillars. Dr. Tyng (who is now 
preferred to St. George's, New York) was rector of the 
parish twelve years. 

I set out on my journey on Thursday the 18th of Octo- 
ber, taking the railroad cars for Columbia, a town on the 
Susquehanna. The road lies through one of the most 
fertile regions in the United States ; the farms, by univer- 
sal acknowledgment, superior to any in the country except 
Western New York. Everything in this section shows an 



JOURNEY TO THE INTERIOR. 239 

equal degree of cultivation to the agricultural districts of 
England. 

The principal place through which we passed, and 
which I afterwards visited more than once, was Lancaster, 
formerly the capital city of Pennsylvania, and now the 
third in importance. Like Philadelphia, the streets which 
are well built, cross each other at right angles. There are 
a college, and several public schools here, with the usual 
complement of public offices, for the more particular de- 
scription of which, see the Gazetteer. St. James church, 
the only episcopal place of worship, is a noble structure, 
attended exclusively by the wealthy citizens. 

At Columbia we took the canal boat, which left a short 
time after our arrival for the western route to Pittsburgh 
and the Ohio river. The views on the Susquehanna river 
are picturesque in the extreme, and are considered by some 
equal in grandeur and variety to those of the Hudson. 
My own experience, however, belies this o\ferpartial esti- 
mate ; though it must be confessed, the finest English river 
scenery sinks into insignificance when compared with the 
numerous views of land and lake, in ahnost every state I 
have visited in America. 

After passing Marietta, Bainbridge, and York Haven, 
three inconsiderable towns, the darkness which came on 
apace shut out the view, and on coming on deck in the 
morning we were near Harrisburgh, the capital of the 
state. 

A few miles beyond Harrisburgh the scenery assumes a 
wild and magnificent appearance, which continued till we 
reached the confluence of the river with its tributary, the 
Juniata, seventeen miles beyond Harrisburgh. Here a 
scene of surpassing grandeur and beauty presents itself; 
the canal, which is borne up by an immense stone wall ex- 
tending from the Blue Mountain Gap to Duncan's Island, 



240 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

enters the Juniata valley ; mountain peaks rise one above 
another on either side, and one continuous scene of loveli- 
ness enchants the eye of the traveller till he reaches Lewis- 
town ; — how far beyond I am unable to say from personal 
survey, as there I landed, after travelling seventy-two miles 
by railroad, and one hundred by canal. 

Lewistown is the shire town of Mifflin county, contains 
several thousand inhabitants, and is finely situated on the 
north bank of the river. I spent a day in climbing over 
the mountains which close it in on the north, and felt a 
wish that it might prove the place of my ministerial la- 
bours ; but such was not to be the case, A former incum- 
bent of the parish, to whom application had been made to 
supply the vacancy in the rectorship, replied by accepting 
the offer, and his letter reached whilst I was in the town. 
I preached twice in the neat brick, church of St. Mark on 
Sunday, and on Tuesday morning left for Harrisburgh. 
Here I met with a cordial reception from Mr. Peacock, and 
the Rev. Charles V. Kelly the excellent rector of St. Ste- 
phen's, to which he was just removed from St. Bartholo- 
mew's in New York. He had relinquished a populous 
parish and a large salary from his country predilections 
and aversion to a city life. 

Though I had preached in Mr. Kelly's pulpit while stay- 
ing in New York, this was the first time of our meeting ; 
and the interview gave rise to a mutual wish that I should 
fix myself in tlie neighbourhood, which the agreeable asso- 
ciations of Harrisburgh made additionally tempting. The 
only vacancy now remaining in the diocess was York, the 
county town to the adjoining county of the same name, and 
twenty miles from Harrisburgh. The congregation there 
had been represented to me as much reduced from deaths 
and the removal of several of the principal families, and in 
other respects as so unpromising a field that I had declined 



MY SECOND PARISH. 241 

the offer of a letter to the vestry made me in Philadelphia. 
Whilst in Harrisburgh I changed my mind, and taking a 
letter from Mr. Peacock to one of the churchwardens, I 
made a visit to York and preached there the following 
Sunday. On the next day the rectorship of the parish 
was, by an unanimous vote of the vestry, tendered to me, 
and the bishop, concurring in the election, instituted me 
on his next visitation to that part of the diocess after my 
promotion to priest's orders — which latter event took place 
in St. Peter's church, Philadelphia, on Sunday the 3rd of 
February, 1839. 

The latter occasion, in opening an acquaintance with 
one of my fellow candidates for the priesthood, proved the 
first step towards the formation of another connection be- 
sides that of a sacerdotal union to the Chnrch. 

16 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

[old] YORK. 

York in Pennsylvania is one of the first settled towns 
in that state, coeval with Philadelphia, Bristol, Chester, 
Reading, and Lancaster, and laid out by William Penn, 
the founder of Pennsylvania ; who if he exhibited but 
little taste in the plans of the cities and towns which he 
founded, was particularly happy in fixing their sites. Of 
this York is a proof ; its situation in the midst of a fertile, 
wide extended vale, and on the banks of a navigable river, 
near the centre of the county, render it an eligible position 
for a shire town, and a market. 

In the old court house. Congress assembled during the 
revolutionary war, when driven from Philadelphia, and here 
a " tory parson " who persisted in praying for his majesty 
George the Third was ducked in the river for his loyalty, 
and discharged from his cure by a more summary and 
effectual mode of ejectment, than an episcopal mandate 
could effect in these days of appeal. 

St. John's church, the parish temple of my congregation, 
was built before the Revolution, and had formerly been one 
of only four churches in the state. It was a substantial 
edifice ; the walls of the same solidity as the generality of 
country churches in England, and standing in a pleasant 
retired part of the town. Here I ministered for two years, 
observing every canonical day in the ecclesiastical calen- 
dar, though frequently on the lesser festivals with scarce 



YORK. 243 

half a dozen fellow-worshippers. My devoted companion 
proved an admirable fellow-helper in my pastoral duties, 
and a sharer in my schemes of relaxation, which, however, 
never extended beyond a day's fishing, or a visit to a coun- 
try parishioner. Our course was, therefore, a smooth and 
even one, made doubly so by the attentions and liberality 
of my congregation. As there are many circumstances con- 
nected with the history of the parish at York highly credit- 
able to several of my predecessors in the office of pastor, 
and to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts to which it owes its foundation, 
I cannot forbear in this place giving a brief sketch of it. 

The church building was erected in 1766-7 at the same 
time with the churches at Lancaster and Reading, and 
when the Rev. John Andrews was missionary from the 
" Venerable Society" in this and Cumberland counties. 
The pews were let out by the year, which is still a rule of 
the parish, and out of these pew holders the vestry, ten in 
number, were and still are annually chosen. Mr. Andrews 
left York to take possession of the parish of St. James at 
Bristol in Bucks county, and was subsequently made Pro- 
vost of the University of Pennsylvania. To him suc- 
ceeded, in 1773, the Rev. Daniel Batwell, likewise an Eng- 
lishman, who being a loyalist and exposed to the violence 
of the revolutionary agents, withdrew from this country at 
the period of the Revolution, and was presented by 
George the Third to a parish, where he died. 

In 1774, the year of Mr. Batwell's " induction," the bell 
was presented to the church by Queen Caroline, consort of 
George the Second, with whose character as delineated by 
the graphic pen of Scott in the " Heart of Mid Lothian," it 
is presumed the reader is familiar. 

After the Revolution, the Rev. Mr. Campbell was called 
to the rectorship of the church in 1784, and continued over 



244 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

it for twenty years. To the exertions of this gentleman 
the congregation are indebted for the parsonage house, and 
the county at large for the academy adjoining it ; the 
money for erecting which was collected by him, principally 
in the cities of Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Lancaster. 
He served the congregation faithfully during the period of 
his incumbency, though it somewhat declined before he 
left, through the proselyting efforts of sectarian preachers ; 
a large portion of his flock were drawn off, and formed into 
a presbyterian congregation at the other end of the town. 
He shortly afterwards removed to the parish of St. John, 
Carlisle, and here he laboured very acceptably till his 
death. 

After Mr. Campbell's departure, the parish remained 
without a rector till April 1810, when the Rev. John Arm- 
strong was chosen ; he left in May, 1819. During his 
ministry the church was presented with a handsome brass 
chandelier by the members of St. Paul's congregation in 
Baltimore. The Rev. Grandison Aisquith was next insti- 
tuted, and served two years. To him succeeded in March 
1821 the Rev. George B. Sehaeffer, who was followed in 
the year 1823 by the Rev. (now. Dr.) Charles Williams, 
who remained till the spring of 1825 ; this gentleman was 
related to Lord Chancellor Thurlow, and left England in 
deacon's orders. He greatly improved the parsonage house 
by new roofing and flooring it, and did much for the benefit 
of the congregation generally. In the spring of 182.5 he 
was elected principal of Baltimore College. He now re- 
sides in Philadelphia. 

The Rev. Richard D. Hall followed Dr. Williams, and 
enjoyed a good share of popularity for three years ; his 
wife's remains are in the churchyard. 

On Easter day 1829 the Rev. John V. E. Thorn was en- 
gaged as an occasional supply — after which the estate went 



YORK. 245 

very much into decay. Members had died off, or joined 
other congregations, and the few remaining were discour- 
aged by the frequent changes in the rectorship. In 1834 
the Rev. Benjamin Hutchins received an invitation to take 
charge of the parish, and greatly were the congregation in- 
debted to that zealous missionary labourer for his voluntary 
and unpaid services. He exerted himself to gather the 
scattered members, and during the eighteen months that 
he was at York, expended between eight and nine hundred 
dollars in improving both church and parsonage ; besides 
presenting the parish with a handsome set of silver com- 
munion plate. Going hence to another field of laljour, his 
place was supplied by the Rev. Walter E. Franklin, who 
served two years, and left in August 1838, a few weeks be- 
fore the writer took charge of the parish. 

From this brief outline, it appears that within a century 
this congregation has had twelve successive pastors, and 
that during the last forty years the average term of resi- 
dence has been two years each : a good practical illustra- 
tion this of the voluntary system. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE CHURCH IN DELAWARE. — PENNSYLVANIAN 
CONVENTION. 

The time, however, arrived, though much before our 
wishes, for my companion to rejoin her EngHsh friends. 
In the second spring of my connexion with York her return 
being deemed necessary, a visit to Niagara Falls was de- 
cided upon before her departure from American scenes. 
After a month spent amongst friends in Philadelphia, I 
joined her in that city on the 7th of May. 

Before commencing our journey, " I received a request 
from Mr. M'Calla of Wilmington to take his duty the fol- 
lowing Sunday. The distance to Wilmington by the rail- 
road is twenty-seven miles. It is the metropolis of the ad- 
joining state of Delaware, finely situated on the river 
Brandywine near its junction with the Delaware river. 
The road passes through a beautiful country, and the old 
town of Chester, settled long before the grant of the colony 
to William Penn. 

There are two populous parishes and churches in Wil- 
mington, besides several resident clergy. I received a hos- 
pitable welcome from Mr. Bradford, one of the churchward- 
ens, whose house surrounded by grounds laid out in the 
English style, about half a mile from the town, proved the 
abode of hospitality and refinement. 

I heard much of the history of the Church in Delaware 
during this visit that awakened my interest and sympathies. 



PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION OF 1840. 247 

It is one of those regions whose spiritual wants were early 
suppUed by the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts, with that liberality which has 
marked all its proceedings from its institution, though the 
Church of Sweden has the honour of having first planted 
it.* Before the Revolution there were forty churches in this 
state erected by the Society, or through the efforts of its 
missionaries. Many of these are in ruins, and only four- 
teen clergymen now belong to the diocess besides the 
bishop, two of them being attached to the college of New- 
ark. The bishop's chair is in St. Andrew's church, Wil- 
mington. 

On Tuesday the 19th of May, the second Convention of 
Pennsylvania since my connection with the diocess assem- 
bled in Philadelphia, in which I took my seat. The pro- 
ceedings in Pennsylvania conventions are very similar to 
those described in a former chapter. The Convention ser- 
mon on this occasion was by the Rev. John Rodney, Rector 
of St. Luke's, Germantown, and was a sound and masterly 
defence of the peculiar doctrines of the Church. The min- 
isterial commission afforded him a theme, on which, in its 
origin, privileges, and responsibilities, he enlarged with 
great fulness and power ; concluding his discourse by ex- 
hibiting to the assembled clergy the Church in her true 
character, as the nursing mother of her people, in their in- 
fancy, their religious training, their guardianship, their con- 
firmation, their spiritual sustenance in the Eucharist, their 
constant counsellor, and their ghostly comforter in the hour 
of death ; exhorting his brethren in the priesthood to " make 
full proof of their ministry," by a faithful and diligent dis- 
charge of their parochial duties. 

* With the same " nursing care" while Delaware remained a Swedish colony 
that the English Church showed to its western progeny. The oldest episcopal 
churches in Delaware, and those in Pensylvania, were built by the Swedes. 



248 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES- 

The diocess of Pennsylvania is the tenth in the United 
States in territorial extent, and the third in population, and 
in the number of clergy. 

The rites of hospitality, though not wholly disregarded 
by the clergy and laity of the cities and towns of the mid- 
dle states, are less understood than in the north or south. 
A convention, or clerical gathering of any kind in New 
England is a signal for invitations to every person otRcially 
attending ; in which there is frequently a struggle among 
the good church people of the town for the largest number 
of guests, who not only partake of the hospitality of the 
table, but are received as temporary inmates of the family. 
The contrast to this reception in Philadelphia is sufficiently 
striking ; where the country clergy think themselves fortu- 
nate enough if they get a solitary invitation to dinner during 
the sitting of Convention, and are driven to the boarding 
houses and taverns for lodging, which their slender resour- 
ces frequently make a serious tax. 

The Convention was attended by the Right Rev. Dr. 
Kemper " Missionary Bishop of the North Western Terri- 
tory." He had been appointed to this extensive oversight 
by the general convention of 1835, as stated in Chapter 
XIX. Besides taking the temporary jurisdiction of Indiana 
and Missouri, (the latter of which has now its own prelate,*) 
Bishop Kemper's regular field of operation covers several 
hundred thousand square miles, which has been pretty gen- 
erally visited by him, and many parishes planted. I waited 
over the next Sunday to hear this episcopal pioneer of the 
cross preach in St. Stephen's church. The sermon was 
practical in its character, delivered with considerable ani- 
mation. His language is full and flowing, though the 
effect is somewhat marred by a strained unnatural utter- 

* Cicero S. Hawks D. D. brother of Dr. Hawks, who at the Convention of 
1835 declined the episcopate of the S. W. Territory. 



ALL SAINTS CHURCH. 249 

ance, in the more rapid periods. The style and matter are 
those of a man whose mind is well disciplined by study and 
observation, and his feelings absorbed by the subjects on 
which he treats. 

In the afternoon I heard the missionary bishop again 
at Christchurch, and preached myself in the evening 
in All Saints church ; a plain unsightly edifice in the 
south division of the city, belonging to a new parish to 
which the extension of the city in that direction had given 
birth. 



CHAPTER XL. 

ANDALUSIA MURDER. BRISTOL. 

The journey to Niagara was commenced on Monday, 
when the mail line, which takes passengers the whole dis- 
tance to New York, was preferred. This gave us an 
opportunity of seeing several towns in Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey which the other line of travel leaves out. The 
first we passed through was Frankfort, in the same county 
as Philadelphia, a lively country place, seated in the midst 
of a cultivated plain watered by a river of that name. 

At Andalusia in Bucks county, a few miles beyond, a 
dreadful tragedy had been lately perpetrated, in the mur- 
der of a schoolmaster named Chapman by a man whom 
his wife had admitted to her favours. It excited additional 
sensation by the adulteress's own participation in the act. 
The moral sense is frequently shocked by these acts in the 
United States ; and latterly, assassinations, seductions, in- 
cendiarisms, highway and house robberies have increased 
at a fearful ratio. While it is admitted that the perpetra- 
tors of these crimes are as frequently foreigners as Ameri- 
cans — perhaps more frequently — still it is no less one of the 
legitimate fruits of the voluntary principle in religion, and 
the absence of a paternal system of religious guardianship, 
by which the great mass of the people are left under no 
religious influence except that which the methodist minis- 
ters acquire over them, which, though beneficial as far as it 
goes, when the instruments of excitement are not used too 



ANDALUSIA MURDER. 251 

freely, is, after all, a poor, insufficient substitute for the 
high, enlightened, scriptural, and rational scheme of popu- 
lar religious instruction and superintendence, created by 
the English parochial system. 

In the present case, however, the parties filled a respect- 
able rank in society ; and if one cause more than another 
gives birth to the laxity of morals, which is asserted from 
the American pulpit, and in the other public organs, to be 
spreading amongst this class, it is, unquestionably, the inun- 
dation of light French literature which has lately flooded 
the country, and which is greedily devoured by almost 
every class of readers. To suppose that the youth of a 
country will have the opportunity of studying the scenes 
and portraitures with which these works abound, without 
imbibing something of the same spirit, and emulating the 
models so attractively presented, is to suppose human na- 
ture different in America from what we find it in every 
other clime. The poison, no doubt, is working rapidly and 
virulently through the whole social fabric of that commu- 
nity, nor are persons in any rank exempt from its influ- 
ence. The evil is perpetrated, and made more extensive, 
by the extreme cheapness which the absence of an interna- 
tional protective law enables the panderers to this corrupt 
taste to furnish the reprints. Any of De Kock's, Paul Fe- 
val's, " George Sand's," or Victor Hugo's novels can be pro- 
cured for a shilling, which is doubtless an excellent argu- 
ment against the foreign copyright. 

Of course, I do not exempt, in this aggregate of influence, 
the novels of Bulwer, who is in high vogue in the United 
States ; and (startling as the fact may be to English read- 
ers) is better esteemed as an author than Scott or Cooper ! 
The farsical character of his scenes — as sickly as they are 
against nature, and the usages of society, and their maud- 
lin seutimentalism lessens only in a degree the effect of 



252 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

that " liberalism''' in morals as well as religion and politics, 
of which he is the apologist. Bulwer among the higher 
classes is a fit cotemporary of Reynolds among the lower. 
Both are the enemies of social order, and the unblushing 
advocates of vice. 

To this evil may be added that unbridled hcentiousness 
of the American press, which gives publicity to cases in 
the criminal courts of the country, and in the private walks 
of life which no English paper would venture to print ; 
public opinion would not here tolerate such exposures in 
any of the daily journals admitted into respectable houses. 
This remark is not intended to apply universally in the 
United States. A large proportion of the daily and weekly 
newspapers, and other periodicals, are free from the offence 
of catering to the worst and lowest passions of human na- 
ture ; but from the absence of any stamp duty on newspa- 
pers, and the facilities with which they are therefore estab- 
lished by persons of no character (or capital either), the evils 
of a licentious and infidel press are incalculably greater, 
and more wide spread in that country than in Britain. 

I am sustained m my view of this subject by the follow- 
ing article, from one of the most respectable class of daily 
journals published in Philadelphia, which city it may be 
here remarked, ranks deservedly high for the moral tone of 
its newspaper press, though the scenes lately enacted there 
show that its influence for good on the lower orders is very 
partial : — 

" It is the opinion of many philanthropists and statisti- 
cians, who have closely investigated the causes and the 
progress of crime, that publicity of the revolting or remark- 
able murders, etc., that take place, may be assigned as one 
reason for their mcrease. This would seem to be a well- 
founded opinion. Individuals who have noticed with care 
the extraordinary murders which have been committed in 



NEWSPAPERS. 253 

this country within a year or two, must have perceived the 
striking similarity in many of the details. Witness for ex- 
ample, the case of Mr. Adams, of New York, murdered by 
Colt; of Mr. Suydam, in New Jersey, and also the recent 
murder of a whole family in Warren county in the same 
; state. In New England, still more recently, two females 
residing but a short distance froin each other were robbed 
and murdered in open day, the guilty in each case adopt- 
ing pretty nearly the same means. So with other instances 
which we cannot recal to memory. On looking over our 
files for a recent week, we find twelve murders committed 
in different parts of the country. The progress of crime, 
indeed, seems frightful ! Is it not possible to discover some 
remedy ? Is not the subject worthy the most serious atten- 
tion of our authorities and philanthropists ? — Cannot the 
press assist in some way, in checking the sanguinary spirit 
which seems abroad in the country ? Mr. Farr, an English 
gentleman, who has investigated the subject of suicides 
and crimes generally, with much attention, suggests that 
some plan for discontinuing by common consent the detail- 
ed dramatic tales of murder, suicide and bloodshed in the 
newspapers, is well worthy the attention of their editors. 
He says — " No fact is better established in science than 
that suicide, and murder may perhaps be added, is often 
committed from imitation. A single paragraph may sug- 
gest suicide to twenty persons ; some particular chance, but 
apt expression, seizes the imagination, and the disposition 
to repeat the act in a moment of morbid excitement proves 
irresistible. Do the advantages of publicity counterbalance 
the evil attendant on one such death ? Why should cases 
of suicide be recorded in the public papers any more than 
cases of fever ? 

" Others, however, agree, and not without force, tJiat the 
certainty of publicity acts powerfully as a preventive. This 



254 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

may be true in some cases, and with some minds. It is 
equally true, however, that many a suicide has been caused 
by a newspaper paragraph, or the apprehension of one. 
The case of Lieut. Wyche may be cited as an example. 
We have known in our own experience, individuals who 
have been rendered perfectly mad for the time, by the ap- 
pearance in newspapers of erroneous or unfounded charges. 
Under such circumstances, the penalty of publicity is indeed 
frightful, while the party being innocent, the press is made the 
instrument of perpetrating an enormous outrage. Constitu- 
ted as society is at present, and vitiated as the public taste is, 
it would be impossible for any journal aiming to be a news- 
paper, to omit all notices of crime, and yet receive a liberal 
degree of public support. Unfortunately, many of those 
who most denounce improper newspaper publications, so- 
called, are among the most eager to peruse them. It rarely 
happens, for example, that a journalist is commended, ap- 
plauded or patronised for omitting the details of an exciting 
and romantic, and yet indelicate story ; while, on the con- 
trary, those who give all the particulars — who spread them 
out to the greatest length, and furnish the accounts in the 
most vivid terms, are the most sought for. While we admit 
the impossibility of excluding every thing that relates to 
crime, we think that something in the way of reform might 
be accomplished. Minute details might be avoided by the 
reputable journals of the day, and with advantage. But 
even this could not be done without some general under- 
standing. If it be true, as the majority of reasoners vipon 
the subject argue, that the publication of all details of sui- 
cides, murders, and other fearful offences, is attended with 
evil to the public morals, the practice is one which calls 
loudly for reform. But the best remedy exists with the 
community. If our citizens eagerly obtain and peruse 
journals which delight in spreading these details before 



NEWSPAPERS. 255 

their readers, and which are known to make a feature of 
this particular kind of news, they should hold themselves 
responsible for the offence and the consequences, at least to 
quite as great an extent as the journalists."* 

It is indeed a lamentable fact that the most exceptionable 
class of newspapers in America have by far the largest cir- 
culation, and that amongst the highest class of readers as 
well as the lowest. This has been explained as owing 
to the superior reccommendations which these very papers 
possess in all that constitutes the most important features 
of a daily paper — viz., copiousness, and newness of publish- 
ed reports relative to mercantile and political doings, market 
prices, variations in the public funds, shipping and foreign 
news, etc., etc. The latest and most accurate intelligence 
on these points forms, unquestionably, the principal, and 
with many readers, the sole recommendation of a newspa- 
per ; but is it indeed the case, that the oldest and most re- 
spectable establishments in America suffer themselves to be 
excelled in these most important requisites of a periodical 
press by rival penny sheets, started sometimes by adven- 
turous and needy foreignerst whose only object is gain, and 
with whom the moral feelings of the community is the 
last consideration that influences them in catering for the 
public appetite ? If such is the apathy or the want of in- 
dustrious enterprize which the proprietors of American 
newspapers of the more reputable class evince, their cases 
afford a startling contradiction of that spirit of emulation 
which it is their perpetual boast belongs to all classes in 
that country ; and a heavy responsibility rests on them for 

♦ The Enquirer, and National Gazette, Nov. 21, 1834. 

t The "New York Herald," the best newspaper in America for all the pur- 
poses of a commercial newspaper, is the property of an unnaturalized Scotch- 
man, who was first an operative in " The Courier " office in that city. He com- 
menced his sheet as a penny hebdomadal of the humblest class. 



256 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the vast and daily accumulating spread of atheistical and 
disorganizing principles, produced by the circulation of the 
smaller class of irresponsible vehicles of news. There is of 
private domestic scandal — nothing at which humanity shud- 
ders — nothing too polluting, too incendiary, or too injurious 
to youthful morals, excluded from the columns of these 
prints, if it only comes under the department of " news." 

But a truce to these reflections, for Bristol appears in 
sight. Few places are so beautifully situated, and sur- 
rounded by so many charming scenes as this thriving town. 
It stands on the bank of the river, commanding an extensive 
prospect of the swelling stream and its verdant sides, with 
Burlington on the opposite shore, St. James's church, be- 
longs to a parish of early foundation, at present under the 
pastoral care of Mr. Perkins. The " episcopalians" here are 
a numerous and influential body. I made several subse- 
quent visits to Bristol ; and shortly before leaving the 
country formed a very agreeable acquaintance with a cler- 
gyman named Johnson of this place, now settled in Mary- 
land. 

At the sudden bend of the river, nine or ten miles beyond 
Bristol, we crossed the broad Delaware by a substantial 
bridge of five arches, resting on stone piers and abutments ; 
which brings us into New Jersey, some of whose character- 
istics and principal localities I shall describe in a future 
chapter. 



CHAPTER XLI. 



THE HUDSON. 



'Tis night — a calm, clear, silvery night, 
And hill and vale, and wooded height, 

Beneath the moonbeams sleep, 
And silence in the haunts of men, 
In village gay, and lovely glen, 

Doth peaceful vigils keep ! 
All quietly we swiftly glide 
Above thy gentle murmuring tide. 

Oh ! bright and beauteous stream ! 
Yet still I stand with swelling breast, 
And eyes that cannot close in rest. 
And gaze where dunly in the west, 

Catskill, thy mountains, gleam! 

It seems a dream — a vision fair. 

That I have breathed thy pure free air. 

And scaled thy lofty brow, 
The snowy clouds beneath my feet, 
Thrown as a veil, a radiant sheet, 

O'er all the world below ; 
Or, floating by, like thrones of light, 
Revealing to my raptured sight, 

Scenes such as fancy loves ; 
While from that distant, lower sphere, 
Rose up, in notes so soft and clear. 
An angel might have paused to hear, 

The music of the groves. 



ANON. 



At New York we took the steamboat North America 
for the village of Catskill, where we had resolved on stop- 
ping- on our way. The palisadoes on the left of the Hud- 
son, or North river, are one of the first, and among the 
most striking objects presented to the traveller's eye. 
They commence at Hoboken and continue for about 
twenty miles, like a high wall of unequal height and bro- 
ken summit. Well ma}^ the American be proud of his 

17 



258 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

rivers and mountains on moving up this noble river. The 
views are ever changing, and always grand and striking. 
Fort Independence, Tarrytown, Sing Sing, Dunderburgh 
Mountain, and Peekskill, are passed in succession, and 
the famed Highlands now brings every one on the high- 
est deck to gaze and admire scenery which surely the 
world cannot surpass. St. Anthony's Nose, West Point, 
Fort Putnam, Newburgh, Hamburgh, Poughkeepsie, and 
Hyde Park, familiar by description to the reader, are left 
behind, and the Catskill mountains are now seen lifting 
their giant heads to, and above the clouds, making the 
pulse beat quick in anticipation of the long-cherished grati- 
fication of reaching that glorious summit, and communica- 
ting some of the inspiration which has given fire to the pen 
of poet and legendist, whose glowing descriptions invest its 
brow, and the surrounding scenes, with a romance almost 
supernatural. 

Hiring an open carriage and pair in the pleasant village 
of Catskill, every house and building of which seemed to 
speak of Rip Van Winkle and his rusty firelock, we were 
soon on our way to the base of the mountain, or rather the 
heap of mountains, piled one above the other, their topmost 
apex being lost ever and anon in the mist. At a turn on 
the winding road which brings you about half way up, 
stands a humble shed, whose sign informs the by passer 
that he has reached the veritable spot where Rip Van 
Winkle took his long nap. Who does not like to favour 
these " cheats on travellers," and to dwell with credulous 
complacency in the full persuasion that just there — on 
that very resting place — shaded by those spreading beech 
trees, inviting to repose, slept Rip Van Winkle after taking 
that powerful potion. 

A few more turns in the winding road, and the toilsome 
ascent is finished, after a ride of twelve miles. From the 



KAUTERSKILL FALLS. 259 

summit of the Mountain House, what a view is spread out 
before the eye ! The succession of cities, towns, villages, 
hamlets, farms, and fields, with the silver stream of the 
Hudson and her tributary branches seem endless. Distant 
mountains appear as mere inequalities of the surface ; and 
the numberless vessels on the river's expansive bosom look 
like insects playing and moving about on the surface of the 
water. 

We passed the whole of the evening, till these objects 
were all shut out by its gathering shadows, on the spacious 
piazza in front of the house of entertainment. In the 
morning the eyes were feasted with renewed, and increased 
gratification, and the telescope used repeatedly to bring the 
different localities pointed out by our host, nearer to our 
view. At eleven we went in our hired vehicle to the ro- 
mantic Kauterskill falls, where two beautiful lakes dis- 
charge their superabundant waters over a precipice of 210 
feet ; the water being broke onethird of the distance 
makes two falls ; its further course is concealed among the 
woods of the ravine below. 

More dream-like still, that wild, lone spot, 
That ne'er in life can be forgot, 

Where falls thy mountain stream, — 
Where, varying, beautiful and bright, 
All radiant with graceful life, 

Thy foaming waters gleam. 
That, to the charmed, and wondering eye, 
Seem gushing from the very sky. 

To their deep bed below, 
While through the silent, listening wood, 
That from creation's morn hath stood. 
And hath all change and time withstood, 

Thy peaceful murmurs flow. 

What rapture did our bosoms thrill, 
As trembling, breathless, pale and still, 
We stood in that lone glen! 



260 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

The spirit longed to burst its chain, 
To seek its native skies again 

Nor mingle more with men ! 
From earthly stain and bondage free, 
To follow its high destiny, 

To bathe in heaven's pure light, 
To learn from seraph's burning tongue. 
More of His skill, whose praise is sung, 
By nature's harp to music strung 

By every fountain bright. 

After dinner at the Mountain House, and again dwelling 
for an hour on the unequalled prospect, we got into our 
carriage, and reached the landing place at the village just 
in time for the steamboat from New York, in which we 
pursued our way up the river, forty-three miles, which 
brought us to Albany. 

Thy peaks are fading from my view, 
A lingering look — a last adieu ! 

Ye mountain heights farewell ! 
May we, who gazed with kindling eyes, 
With burning thoughts, in mute surprise, 

On vale, and stream and dell, 
In that fair land by angels trod. 
On Zion's hill the mount of God, 

Once more in rapture stand ! 
Though never more our paths may meet, 
May we again hold converse sweet. 
And feel our hearts in oneness beat. 

In that far, " Better Land !" 

During the passage we passed several towns and vil- 
lages, among them Kinderhook, the country residence of 
the then President. It is a small Dutch built village ; the 
house, from what we could see of it, much of the same 
character. Mr. Van Buren was at this time becoming 
daily more unpopular, as the embarrassments of the coun- 
try, the result, as it was said, of his predecessor's policy 
(in which he had co-operated) increased. Numbers were 



KINDERHOOK. 261 

breaking from the ranks of " democracy," and attaching 
themselves to the " whig" party ; and as the presidential 
term of office was nearly expired, political feeling was now 
reaching its highest point. The occasion of approaching 
Kinderhook, often celebrated in election songs, and the po- 
litical caricatures, seemed to stir up all the party feeling of 
the passengers, with whom the epithets of " King Martin," 
" the little magician," with their associates of " kitchen ca- 
binet," " cabbage garden," '' gold spoons," " paper and 
twine," and other expressions familiar to every one at this 
time, through the speeches of politicians, and the rhymes 
and pictures of caricaturists, were liberally used. As the 
boat rounded the pier to leave some passengers, several 
voices struck up the following song to the tune of "Yankee 
Doodle." 

For Harrison and liberty 

Let every free'man shout, sirs ! 
Let's meet Van Buren at the polls, 
And turn the despot out, sirs; 
For Harrison then keep it up. 
For Harrison and law, sirs : 
Too long we have to despots bowed. 
Now freedom's sword we draw, sirs. 

When war's destructive blast came on, 

Oh, where was Harrison, sirs ! 
His country's annals well can show 

How he the battles won, sirs. 

For Harrison, &c. 
No more we'll trust to cabbage heads, 

Or Kinderhook physicians ; 
No more we'll bow to cabinets 

Of fox-like sly magicians. 

For Harrison, &c. 

We call the Hero from the plough, 

In freedom's cause to cheer us ; 
The kitchen cabinet must go. 

And Van himself must fear us. 

For Harrison, &<;. 



262 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

We strike in freedom's holy cause, 

'Gainst those who would enslave us ; 
And lo ! our Cincinnatus comes, 

From Goth and Van to save us. 

For Harrison, &c. 

The " Cincinnatus" of this popular doggerel was General 
Harrison, the " whig" candidate for the Presidency, whose 
untimely death a few weeks after his inauguration spread 
a universal gloom over the country, and appeared at the 
time, as far as poor human foresight can understand events, 
the most disastrous one that had ever befallen the United 
States. A venerable hero, and an uncorrupted politician, 
the federalists of the nation turned their eyes on him, as 
what was supposed to be the effect of Jackson's policy be- 
gan to work its wide-spread mischief. Harrison was called 
literally from his plough, and the quiet avocations of his 
farm on the river Ohio, to fill the executive chair ; when 
summoning to his Cabinet the most talented men of his 
party, he set himself to correct what he regarded as the evil 
of his predecessor's acts. Before, however, any one import- 
ant measure could be consummated, he was called away 
to another world. America mourned one of her truest pa- 
triots, and THE Church of America, at the same time, 
lost one of her most devout and most attached laymen. 
The new President had been for many years an active 
member of the " episcopal" church in Ohio ; had sat in her 
ecclesiastical councils ; and, in his own parish, had regu- 
larly discharged the duties of a vestryman. Like the first 
American President, to whom his political admirers love to 
compare him, " he was gathered to his fathers, having the 
testimony of a good conscience, in the communion of the 
Catholic Church, in the confidence of a certain faith, in the 
comfort of a reasonable, religious and holy hope, in favour 
with God, and in perfect charity with the world."* 
* Visitation Office. 



MR. TYLER. 263 

The constitution of the United States, which in such 
cases makes the Vice President the successor in the execu- 
tive chair, gave the reins of power to a man of very inferior 
parts, who had been proposed to his first post by the Con- 
vention which nominated Harrison in order to concihate 
certain states, whose local prejudices it was apprehended 
would be in some measure awakened by the nomination of 
a western man for President ; the force of accidental cir- 
cumstances had thrust him into public life, in which he had 
played a very secondary part. His very want of abilities 
was his recommendation ; as the contingency of General 
Harrison's death made it important to provide against any 
interruption in the schemes which were to be carried out 
during his administration, and Tyler, the new Vice Presi- 
dent, v/as loud in his professions of whig principles. The 
" whig" party greatly erred in this step !* Whether the 
country at large was the gainer or not, has yet to be proved. 
The new President had fallen into the hands of some wily 
politicians belonging to the opposition, and, without even 
consulting with his cabinet, vetoed every important measure 
which his party carried through Congress. His ministers 
perceived too late that they were not wanted, and retired 
from their posts. One only, Mr. Daniel Webster, remained, 
at the earnest solicitation of his friends ; by which, it must 
be granted, in his admirable diplomatic policy in conducting 

* It must, however, be admitted, that the country has greatly improved in sub- 
stantial prosperity since the termination of the national bank charter, and that 
the first shock produced by that act in the disturbance of the monetary system 
having past, every department of commercial and financial operation has ac- 
quired greater stability and firmness. Capital is more equally divided ; ex- 
changes are low and uniform ; manufactured goods are cheap ; labour is suffi- 
ciently remunerated ; and the ruinous system of speculation, which was doubt- 
less a leading cause of the disastrous re-action in 1834-5-6-7, is eflTectually checked. 
Another change in the monetary system of the country would, therefore, be a 
misfortune. 



264 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the Northeastern boundary treaty, the country was saved 
from serious difficulties with Great Britain, and other catas- 
trophes averted. Jackson's and Van Buren's policy was 
continued by Tyler, whose successor, the present President, 
follows out the same line with a bolder and more states- 
man-like purpose. Whether for good or for evil, Jefferso- 
nian " democracy" has certainly long obtained the upper hand 
in the United States, and the opposition party is hopelessly 
excluded from any prospect of recovering the reins of gov- 
ernment. 

The reader must pardon this digression from the simple 
narrative of a passage up the Hudson river, and a view of 
its picturesque beauties. If such a theme as American 
politics disturbs or dissipates his contemplation of the glo- 
rious scenes with which it abounds, though beheld through 
the faint medium of a partial description, let the owner of 
Kinderhook receive the blame, and the reader may find all 
the sympathy he wants from another song, in which the 
male, and a few of the female voices, are now swelling a 
new chorus as the boat makes its onward way : — 

Of the little Magician we're tired, 

And of the Sub-treasury too ; 
We'll scout him, the people are fired 

With love for Old Tippecanoe. 

When Martin was housed like a chattel, 

Opposed to the war as you know, 
Our hero was foremost in battle, 

And conquered at Tippecanoe. 

The fame of our hero grows wider, 

And spreads the whole continent through ; 

Then fill up a mug of hard cider, 
And drink to Old Tippecanoe. 

We hear many thousand good farmers, 
United together so true. 



SONG. 266 



Shout loudly, " Van Burcn will harm us, 
We'll vote for Old Tippecanoe." 

To bring down the price of our labour, 

Van Buren is striving to do ; 
Then come every man with his neighbour, 

And vote for Old Tippecanoe. 

The kitchen of filth must be cleansed 

And every thing fitted anew ; 
And all the materials amended, 

Directed by Tippecanoe. 

And now in the month of November, 

The people together will go, 
To turn out the great money spender, 

And put in Old Tippecanoe. 

The people with plenty will prosper, 
And homewards Van Buren will go, 

True principles then we will foster, 
Through President Tippecanoe. 



CHAPTER XLIL 



NIAGARA. 



The city of Albany is 240 miles from Philadelphia ; a 
railroad unites it to Buffalo, the great emporium of the 
lakes, 342 miles from Albany where steamboats constantly 
leave for Chicago in Illinois ; thus transportmg travellers to 
the west from New York 1490 miles of the way by steam. 

From Albany, a place of about the same date as New 
York, and now the capital of the state, we took the rail- 
road to Syracuse, which we reached about noon the next 
day ; the rest of the distance to Buffalo was accomplished 
by stage, one night being passed at Canandaigua, the shire 
town of Ontario county, seated at the head of a lake bear- 
ing its name. The day after leaving Utica, which we 
reached on the first morning of our journey from Albany, 
gave us an opportunity of enjoying a succession of views 
of rare beauty, as we journeyed through a country which 
has well been pronounced by various travellers unequalled 
for fertility in the United States. 

We reached Buffalo late Saturday evening, and found 
excellent accommodation at the American Hotel, a house 
of large dimensions, and possessing every comfort belonging 
to the most luxurious establishment of the kind. The 
view of Buffalo the next morning greatly exceeded my ex- 
pectations. Knowing that it had been burnt down by the 
British in 1813, I certainly was not prepared to see a city, 
handsomely and tastefully built, with public squares and 



NIAGARA. 267 

buildings all wearing a more European look than half the 
towns on the Atlantic coast ; much more so than Phila- 
delphia. Yet such is Buffalo, its population only two hun- 
dred in number in 1820, is now two thousand eight hundred ! 

In the morning I found my way to Trinity Church, a 
fine Gothic structure, where I had the pleasure of hearing 
Dr. Shelton, its worthy rector. The galleries were half 
filled with soldiers, part of a regiment tlien quartered in 
the city. 

The next morning we left in a steamboat for the falls^ 
twenty-two miles distant. I cannot describe my feelings 
when, about noon, the column of spray appeared in the 
distance, and the sound of the mighty cataract first became 
distinctly audible. They were, in truth, overwhelming I 
Landing within a few miles of the spot, we soon reached 
the hotel, when, after a hurried repast,, we hastened to Goat 
Island, and received our first impressions. 

Goat Island divides the cataract ; the fall on the left look- 
ing down the river, being about twice the width of that on 
the right, which is again broken by a rocky projection. 
The whole fall made by these three streams does not roll 
over a ledge running at right angles from its course as 
many suppose, but extends diagonally from one to another, 
which makes the American four hundred yards lower 
down the river then the Canada or Horse Shoe Fall, so 
called from the shape of the projecting ledge over which it 
tumbles. This feature in Niagara Falls gives great variety 
to the views of it, and takes nothing from its grandeur, as 
from various points the whole descent of water is seen at once. 

The evening was spent on the American side ; afterwards 
we took the ferry to the Canada side to change the scene. 
On the deep stream where the boat crosses, the objects 
around and above us were grand in the extreme. The cat- 
aract spanned by its perpetual bow, and the deep, steady, 



268 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

constant roll of the measureless volume of water enchained 
us in speechless admiration and wonder. 

" The imagination baffled, strives in vain ! 
The wildest streams that ever poets feign 
Thou dost transcend ! There is no power in song 
To paint the wonders that around me throng." 

On the Canada side we descended the winding staircase 
leading to a projecting rock which extends nearly half way 
under the Horse Shoe Fall, having previously made the 
necessary change in our dress in the frame building at the 
summit ; and, accompanied by a trusty guide, we ventured 
under the foaming cataract, amidst a constant descent of 
spray which several times took my little companion off her 
feet, and threatened us both with being carried away with 
its force. The office-keeper had informed us that the river 
was unusually swollen, and had suggested that " the lady 
had better not venture," but " the lady," was not one to turn 
back in the pursuit of such a novel adventure, and was too 
intense a lover of natural beauties to be deterred from enjoy- 
ing a scene so awfully grand. The following official cer- 
tificate possesses, I suppose, the same relative value as a 
college diploma, with perhaps greater veracity : — 



NIAGARA FALLS, U. C. 

THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT 

THE REV. EDWARD WAYLEN 

HAS PASSED BEHIND THE GREAT 

FALLING SHEET OF WATER, 

TO TERMINATION ROCK ] 

BEING 230 FEET BEHIND THE GREAT HORSE-SHOE FALL. 

Given under my hand, at the office of the 
General Register of the names of visitors at the 
Table Rock, this 3rd day of June, 1840. 

Isaiah Starkey. 



NIAGARA. 269 

After dwelling amid these scenes of wonder for several 
days, and once more crossing to the Canada side, we reluct- 
antly left them for Lewistown, seven miles lower down the 
river, where we took an English steamboat called " The 
Great Britain" for Oswego on the southeast shore of Lake 
Ontario, a further distance of 150 miles. Opposite to Lew- 
istown is the town of Queenstown, the scene of a memora- 
ble engagement during the last war, and above it, on the 
hill summit, stands a fine monument, erected to the memo- 
ry of the British General (Brock) who fell in that strife. 

Our course now lies for the lake, reached by the deep 
stream formed by that mighty avalanche of waters on 
which we have lately gazed. In an hour or two, the dis- 
tant expanse of an inland sea is visible — and now we are 
borne on its bosom, the setting sun declining amidst a halo 
of glory — 

" Curtain'd with cloudy red, 
Pillows his chin upon an orient wave." 

I certainly remember nothing so beauteous as the scenes 
which that lake journey presented — calm, quiet, lovely and 
delicious, I wished it could last for ever, or that every even- 
ing would be as pleasant, and the evening of life as serene 
and peaceful. The moon arose in her splendour as the 
western horizon grew dim, and we lingered on deck till 
the midnight clock reminded us that our place of destina- 
tion would be reached by early morn, when a day's travel 
was before us. 

At Oswego we took the canal boat, which follows the 
windings of the Oswego River to Syracuse, thirty-eight 
miles distant, from whence Philadelphia Avas reached by 
the same route as before. At New York Miss Waylen left 
in a London packet for home. 

Before proceeding to York I received a request to officiate 



270 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

at West Chester on the Sunday that its rector, Mr. Richard 
Newton, supplied the then vacant church of St. Paul in 
Philadelphia (and which resulted in his being invited to 
assume the rectorship of the same). I record this incident 
to express the pleasure which my visit to one of the pret- 
tiest spots in Pennsylvania, and the acquaintance there 
formed (though unrenewed) with the family of Mr. New- 
ton, and the Rev. Mr. Rees of the same place afforded me. 
The latter was at this time principal of a classical academy 
in the town, to which he now adds the charge of St. Paul's 
parish at West Whiteland. The church at West Chester, 
built in the Gothic order, with a graceful spire, is a good 
specimen of the taste and enterprize of the parishioners. 
The east window is of stained glass. Besides Mr. Rees's 
Academy, there is a fine seminary belonging to the Roman- 
ists adjoining the town, the students of which, to my sur- 
prise, attended church in the afternoon accompanied by one 
of the tutors. 

This town lies nine miles out of the railroad line from 
Philadelphia to York. I reached the inn whence the road 
diverges from the latter a little before the cars passed, and 
got to my parish in the evening, having travelled in my 
Niagara trip alone 1377 miles. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 



A WEEK IN NEW JERSEY. 

Mild were his doctrines, and not one discourse 
But gained in softness wliat it lost in force : 
Kind his opinions ; — he would not receive 
An ill report, nor evil act believe ; 
" If true, 'twas wrong; but blemish great or small 
"Have all mankind; yea, sinners are we all." 

If ever fretful thought disturb'd his breast — 
If aught of gloom that cheerful mind oppress'd— 
It sprang from innovation : it was then 
He spoke of mischief made bj' restless men ; 
Not by new doctrines: never in his life 
Would he attend to controversial strife, 
For sects he cared not — " They are not of us 
" Nor need we, brethren, their concerns discuss ; 
" But 'tis the change — the schism at home I feel ; 
"Ills few perceive, and none have skill to heal: 
" Not at the altar our young brethren read 
" (Facing their flock) the Decalogue and Creed ; 
" But to their duty in their desks they stand 
" With naked surplice, lacking hood and band : 
" Churches are now of holy song bereft, 
" And half our ancient customs changed or left ; 
" Mistaken choirs refuse the solemn strain 
"Of ancient Gregory, which from our's amain 
" Comes flying forth from aisle to aisle about 
" Sweet links of harmony, and long drawn out." 

Crabbe. 

I CONTINUED at York till late in September of the same 
year, when the increasing feebleness of aged parents, and 
other family considerations created a strong desire to make 
a visit to England, for which I obtained the permission of 
my vestry, who gave me, with the bishop's consent, a six 
month's furlough, accompanied with " Resolutions" expres- 
sive of their good feeling. 

On the Friday before my departure, the Rev. Robert 



272 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Davies, rector of Belleville in New Jersey, arrived on a 
long promised visit, and preached in St. John's the Sunday 
following. On Monday (St. Matthew's Day) I took leave 
of my people in a farewell sermon ; amongst those present 
besides my own congregation were all the protestant minis- 
ters of the town, and as many of their several congrega- 
tions as the building would accommodate. 

On Tuesday, September 22nd, I bade adieu for a time to 
York, and, accompanied by my friend Davies, reached 
Philadelphia in the evening, where on the next morning 
we became guests of Mr. Neilson, a hospitable and public- 
spirited citizen. His house, table, and whole domestic ar- 
rangements are a fair model of the English gentleman or 
peer. There was present on this occasion, besides Mrs. 
Neilson and several ladies, a brother of our host, who 
holds an official post near the person of the Governor-Gen- 
eral of Canada. 

Thursday morning, we took the steamboat to Burling- 
ton, when I first became acquainted with Bishop Doane, 
who was one of the passengers ; he invited my companion 
and myself to the episcopal residence at Riverside, which 
we reached a little after noon. We met at the dinner-table 
Dr. Dorr, the rector of Christchurch, Philadelphia, an inti- 
mate acquaintance and frequent visitor of the bishop's, and 
two of his own clergy. The occasion was a highly agree- 
able one, enhanced by the presence of Mrs. Doane, whose 
manners, highly polished and full of kindness, render her a 
fit mistress of a bishop's house. The conversation related 
chiefly to England, in which all present showed themselves 
well conversant with the current literature of our country. 

Having engaged to be at Hoboken, seventy miles distant, 
the following morning, we left Riverside in the afternoon 
for Trenton the capital of the state. The state house and 
governor's residence, city hall, and churches of this pleasant 



HOBOKEN. 273 

city are all substantial buildings, which a subsequent visit 
enabled me to inspect. Trenton, it will be remembered, is 
classical ground to the Americans. Here General Washing- 
ton in the campaign of 1776, with his army of live thou- 
sand men, crossed the Delaware at the dead of a Avinter's 
night, and taking the British commander's force by sur- 
prise, achieved one of his most signal victories ; numbers 
of the Hessians were killed, upwards of a thousand made 
prisoners, and the rest fled to Bordentown, while (so at 
least, says the American historian) only nine Americans 
fell in the engagement. 

Ten miles further brought us to Princeton, celebrated for 
its college under the management of presbyterians. Here 
another battle was fought during the revolutionary war. 
Kingston, New Brunswick, Rahway, Elizabethtown, and 
Newark were passed in the dark. 

We found our friend, the rector of Hoboken, occupying a 
pleasant residence overlooking a great part of that favourite 
rural retreat. Hoboken is famed for its woods and gar- 
dens, and is as much frequented by the New Yorkers as 
Kensington and Hampstead by the Londoners. Here, 
however, as almost every where in the United States, the 
levelling and innovating spirit of utilitarianism is soon to 
sweep away its picturesque beauties. The natural inequal- 
ities of the ground, now covered with trees, and intersected 
with winding walks along a most beautiful shore, are 
already "laid off" — "planned" — as a branch of the city. 
The ground is to be levelled, and filthy unsightly streets, 
arranged at right angles like a chess-board, are to take the 
place of gardens and shrubberies w4iose beauty now draws 
thousands from the close unwholesome city on every Sun- 
day and holiday to wander through the verdant glades, 
and taste the health-giving breezes from the bay. The 
hoard of health ought to forbid such a spoliation ! 

18 



274 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

After an agreeable visit, which we promised to repeat, 
we returned to Newark, where I beame acquainted with 
Dr. Chapman and Mr. Henderson, the rectors of the two 
parishes of Gracechurch and Trinity, in that city. There 
are about 19,000 inhabitants in Newark, which stands on 
the Passaic river, fifteen miles below the Falls. Its streets 
are wide and well shaded, the greatest architectural orna- 
ment is Trinity church which stands in an open green in 
the centre of the city. 

Dr. Chapman, with whom we spent part of the day, and 
whom I have since frequently met on different occasions, is 
the well-known author of several volumes of controversial 
sermons, which show an uncommon depth of learning, and 
are masterpieces of pulpit composition. No publications 
have proved so successful in bringing over members of 
other denominations to the Church as Dr. Chapman's ; 
several of the clergy, formerly presbyterian and baptist 
ministers, were converted by the arguments and proofs in 
his sermons to " Presbyterians of all sects." 

After being hospitably entertained at Mr. John H. Ste- 
phen's, one of the parishioners of Gracechurch, I accom- 
panied Mr. Davies to his own parish of Belleville, four 
miles up the river. The place is deservedly regarded as 
one of the most picturesque and healthy villages near New 
York, several of whose wealthiest citizens have built their 
country seats here. We were received by Colonel West, 
an English half pay officer, whose American investments 
had led him to take up his residence in the country. He 
occupied a tasteful villa on a high bank, thickly wooded, 
and ornamentally laid out, overlooking the beautiful stream 
of the Passaic where he had also built a Chinese fishing 
house. In this charming retreat, commanding a wide ex- 
panse of land and water, very similar to the view from 
Richmond Hill, I spent several days visiting families in the 



MR. STUYVESANT, 275 

neiglibouihood, meeting dinner parties at the Colonel's 
house, and fishing in the well-stocked stream. 

The Sunday after our arrival I preached for Mr. Davies, 
whose congregation was occupying a temporary building 
whilst the church, which had been destroyed by an incen- 
diaiy, was re-erecting. Among the worshippers was Mr. 
Peter iStuyvesant, the lineal descendant of the immortal- 
ized Governor of New York of the same name, whose de- 
cision of character, statesmanship, and prowess are all re- 
corded with historical fidelity in Washington Irving's " His- 
tory" of that state. I confess I never was so interested in a 
new acquaintance since my first arrival in America. What 
man, woman, or child in England is not familiar with the 
deeds of " Peter the Headstrong ?" I next day had the grati- 
fication of seeing the original portrait of the hero at Mr. Van 
Ranssalaer's, and of spending the day in the old hall of the 
present worthy representative of this truly noble house. 

The occasion was the visit of the Bishop of New Jersey 
to the parish to administer confirmation, when he was ac- 
companied by several of his clergy. The clerical party, 
with other neighbouring gentry, were entertained by Mr, 
Stuyvesant in a manner rarely exceeded in the highest 
English circles. The house itself is the most baronial 
looking country mansion I have seen in the United States ; 
and stands in the centre of a park dotted with clumps of 
forest trees. Its owner is the third man in the country for 
his wealth, which is seen in every part of his fine estab- 
lishment. His hospitality is unbounded, and his religious 
and charitable endowments and gifts are on an equal scale 
of munificence. 

The whole party attended the evening service of the 
church ; after which music, paintings, books, and works 
of virtu occupied the attention till supper, which was cold, 
and for its variety and the character of the viands was 



276 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

as recherche as the most fastitidious London gourmand 
could desire. 

The next day was a renewal of the social enjoyments in 
this delightful abode of refinement and good breeding, when 
our host's beautiful niece played and sung several foreign 
airs in a superior style. This young lady was in fact the 
life of the company ; her extreme loveliness, greatly set off 
by sprightly manners and uncommon intelligence, made 
her the focus of admiration. 

After dinner we set out in different carriages, three of 
which were supplied by our liberal entertainer, for Orange, 
where the bishop held his next visitation. The ride took 
us through a beautiful part of the country, and on reaching 
Orange, I was agreeably surprised by meeting the new 
Bishop of Maryland, who had arrived the same day on a 
visit to some relatives. 

Many of my English readers have seen and heard the 
Bishop of New Jersey, and to such, any description of his 
appearance and style would be tedious. I have only in 
this place, to express the strong gratification I experienced 
when I first heard him preach at Belleville, which was in- 
creased on each subsequent occasion. The deep tones of 
his musical voice, the graceful character of his elocution, 
with the clearness and simplicity of his style, are no less 
admired amongst the numerous flocks over which he is a 
chief shepherd, than they were in the noble fanes of Eng- 
land. Whenever he appears, crowds of delighted listen- 
ers attend his preaching, as well out of his own diocess 
as in it. 

After witnessing part of the religious exercises at Orange, 
I left on the following morning, (Wednesday, Sept. 30th) 
with Bishop Whittingham and Messrs. Ward and Davies 
for New York, to attend the Convention of the diocess 
whose sittings commenced the same day. 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

NEW YORK CONVENTION. — THE BISHOP OF ILLINOIS. 

DR. SEABURY. 

At the hour of divine service, the spacious church of St. 
Paul was filled to overflowing. The Bishops of New York, 
Illinois, and Maryland occupied seats in the chancel, and 
the clergy and lay delegates filled the body of the church, 
the gallery being crowded with spectators. The bishop of 
the diocess delivered on this occasion his triennial charge, 
besides the address, and the Communion was administered 
by the three prelates to the vast body of communicants. 

I derived the greatest gratification on this occasion from 
the long anticipated pleasure, which was enhanced by its 
unexpectedness, of seeing the venerable Bishop of Illinois, 
and receiving the Communion from his hand. The first 
name that I had heard in my own country in connection 
with the American Church ; the pioneer of gospel truth 
and apostolic order to the western wilds of the great Ameri- 
can continent ; the founder of Kenyon College — that was 
enouffh ! — takina: with it the remembrance of the difficulties 
which he encountered, the sore trials he underwent in ob- 
taining the means to commence his undertaking, and his 
patient endurance of persecution and opposition of every 
kind, both then and after his work was commenced, enough 
to break an ordinary man's spirit. The founder of Kenyon 
College was a title high enough, without that of " bishop," 
or " right reverend," to invest him with interest, sufficient 



278 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

to make the day that I first saw him a positive era in my 
American history. In person this distinguished prelate 
(and now primate) is tall and robust, Avith flowing hair sur- 
mounted by a black silk cap, which is always worn. His 
manners are gentlemanly and dignified, and his whole ap- 
pearance prepossessing. 

While waiting in New York during the month of Octo- 
ber and part of November, I received intelligence from Eng- 
land which made me again desirous of removing perma- 
nently to my own country. I, therefore, formally relin- 
quished ni}^ parish at York by letter, and after spending the 
winter in Philadelphia, set out on a trip to the west, pre- 
paratory to taking what I intended to be my final leave of 
the United States. In both I was deceived : the ivestern 
trip, from my commencing it too early, took me no fur- 
ther than Ohio, and during the Christmas season the re- 
newal of an acquaintance with the family of a clerical 
friend, referred to in a previous chapter, led to a connection 
which changed my final ret?ir?i to England to a mere wed- 
ding trip. 

The lengthened visit at New York introduced me to 
some agreeable associations. I preached each Sunday in 
the city or neighbourhood. At Hoboken, where I officiated 
three Sundays successively, I contracted an intimacy with 
the amiable rector (Mr. Ward,) and Mr. Van Boskerck's 
family, which will always be remembered as among the 
most agreeable of my American reminiscences. I heard 
Mr. Price, Mr. Cooke, (Dr. Milnor's assistant,) Mr. Marcus, 
Dr. Wainwright, Dr. Seabury, Mr. Morris, (the rector of 
Trinity School,) and Mr. Higbee. 

Mr. Price, rector of St. Stephen's, is the third successor 
in that parish of the late Bishop Moore of Virginia. He is 
one of the loveliest Christian characters I met with in the 
country, and in addition to excellent oratorical powers, the 



DR. SEABURY. 279 

best reader of the Church service I ever heard. In his 
vestry-room I was introduced to the Bishop of Ohio. 

Mr. Marcus, who is of Jewish birth, formerly belonged to 
the Church of England. He has been about ten years 
transferred to the American Church, and is additionally at- 
tached to the country by his own second marriage, and the 
marriage of a daughter to one of his parishioners. 

Dr. Samuel Seabury is the grandson of the first Ameri- 
can bishop, consecrated in Scotland, and one of the most 
distinguished lights of the Church. He inherits all the 
devotion to her cause and the staunch orthodoxy of his an- 
cestor, with added brilliancy of talent as a writer and con- 
troversialist. No man is better armed for polemical war- 
fare, both from his ripe scholarship, extensive reading, and 
the wide grasp of his mind. Romanist, non-episcopalian, 
and infidel have each entered the lists, and been successive- 
ly worsted. The Churchman, of which he is the editor, is 
the official organ of the New York bishop with his diocess, 
and in some respects the established organ of the whole 
American Church. The leading articles of this able senti- 
nel are not surpassed by the ablest writers in the British 
Quarterlies, and Monthlies. 

I yielded to a spirit of curiosity on a very unfavourable 
afternoon, and set out in a cab for the church of the Annun- 
ciation, of which Dr. Seabury is rector. It is a plain building 
in the northwest quarter of the town, about two miles from 
Murray-street, my regular stopping place. The altar in this 
church occupies its proper position, raised on a platform of 
proper height, and in the centre of the eastern extremity. 
At this Dr. Seabury performed the devotional parts of the 
service ; reading the lessons and delivering his sermon from 
a lecture, as recommended by the Bishops of New York, 
New Jersey and Maryland. The sermon was equal to my 
highest expectations, and was listened to by a full attend- 



280 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ance of worshippers with close attention, which its argu- 
mentation, and skilful context drew forth ; though the 
preacher aimed at none of the flights of elocutionary dis- 
play. He has little animation, and preserves nearly the 
same tone of voice throughout the address, but the atten- 
tion of the hearer is kept up to the last by the rich vein of 
thought that runs through the whole. 



CHAPTER XLV. 



THE PEW NUISANCE. THE CHURCH VCl'SUS A 

"fashionable DENOMINATION." 

Old Heathendom's vast temples 

Held men of every fate ; 
The steps of far Benares 

Commingle small and great ; 
The dome of Saint Sophia 

Confounds all human state. 

The aisles of blessed Peter 

Are open all the year ; 
Throughout wide Christian Europe 

The Christian's right is clear — 
To use God's house in freedom 

Each man the other's peer — 

MiLNES. 

They lie in valleys buried deep, 

They stud the barren hills ; 
They're mirror'd where proud rivers sweep, 

And by the humbler rills; 
A blessing on each holy lane. 

Wherever they may stand, 
With open door for rich and poor. 

The churches of our land ! 

Talk not of England's " wooden walls," 

Her better strength is here ; 
Here trust around the spirit falls, 

Subduing doubt and fear; 
Here her brave sons have gather'd power. 

Nerving each heart and hand — 
Most fearless prove those who best love 

The churches of our land. 

They stand the guardians of the faith 

For which our fathers died : 
God keep those temples still from scathe. 

Our blessing and our pride ! 
Our energies, our deeds, our prayers. 

All these should they command, 
That never foe may lay them low. 

The churches of our land. 

Mary Anne Brown. 

The clay after my retuin to Philadelphia I met an old 
Rhode Island friend and colleague under the trees fronting 



282 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the State House, in the person of Lewis Jansen,* who in- 
vited me to visit him at his parish of Manayunk, to which 
he had lately been appointed. Mr. Jansen was a native of 
England, the grandson of a French peer whose title and es- 
tates were irretrievably lost during the revolution in that 
country. He has resided about sixteen years in America, 
where he has brought up a large family. Having long 
contemplated a visit to the interesting and beautifully situ- 
ated spot which had become the scene of his labours, I 
spent the next Sunday at his dwelling on the banks of the 
peaceful Schuylkill, and preached in his church. The lat- 
ter is a good specimen of rural church architecture, with a 
high square tower of fine proportions. 

Manayunk is situated seven miles from Philadelphia, ap- 
proached by the best Macadamised road out of that city, 
which leads to Norristown and Reading. A little out of 
this road another diverges to the side of the Schuylkill 
river, from which it is separated by a substantial stone 
parapet. In a few moments the busy town of Manayunk, 
with its water-mill factories and stone-built dwellings, ap- 
pears in view, rendered more picturesque by the variegated 
foreground of bush, brake, river and sloping shores, and its 
distant back-ground of blue hills. The view, aided as it 
is by a handsome bridge, whose arches spanning the 
stream breaks the prospect, is one of surpassing loveliness ; 
often does the traveller, when he reaches this turn in the 
road, stop and gaze involuntarily at its picturesque beauty. 

My friend had taken his new charge at the earnest re- 
quest of the principal parishioners, to whom he had been 
recommended by the last incumbent. His duties were, 
however, more onerous than those which fell to him in his 
former parish, on account of the large population of Eng- 
lish and Irish protestant emigrants who were employed in 

* A first cousin to Madame Vestris. 



MANAYUNK. 283 

the mills, and nearly all of whom came under his pastoral 
cognizance. The church had been built originally for this 
class ; to whom it had proved during the rectorship of the 
former pastor, (the Rev. Frederick Freeman) an eminent 
blessing. The principal manufacturer of the town, Mr. 
Joseph Ripka, aided by two Philadelphia gentlemen, named 
Wagner, were the founders of this praiseworthy design to 
give to the poor episcopalians of the town a parish temple. 
Several respectable inhabitants formerly from Ireland, who 
were owners of property in the town, assisted in the under- 
taking. One who was a builder contributed a portion of 
the stone ; another, lumber ; and all their labour. The 
building rose under the direction of a gentleman of consid- 
erable architectural skill, who owned a country seat in the 
neighbourhood.* It was completed and consecrated in 
1838 ; Mr. Jansen was the third incumbent of the parish. 

I was much interested in the condition of this parish 
from the history of its origin and progress ; and became 
more so when, on entering the reading desk, I observed a 
spectacle, common enough in England though very un- 
usual in American episcopal churches, yet which is the 
only type of the Church Triumphant — viz., worshippers of 
different ranks kneeling at one altar and worshipping one 
Saviour. There sat the rich manufacturer, and there the 
tradesman, and there the hardy mechanic, and there the 
humble, but cleanly looking operative, with his healthy 
family — all joining in the responsive acts of worship, as 
their fathers had done, and listening attentively to the 
words of instruction from the pulpit. In an instant I was 
transported back to my native land ; where, following the 
same primitive pattern, the peer and the peasant, the noble 
and the very pauper, worship under the same roof, and lis- 
ten to the same preacher ; and where, in many places, 

♦ Andrew Young, Esq. 



284 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

church-people now understand the spirit of Christianity so 
well that a common bench serves for all without distinc- 
tion. 

It is a radical fault in the American church, and, if coun- 
tenanced, must work as rottenness in her bones, that she is 
oftentimes so exhibited, that the poor are actually repelled 
from her communion. It is lamentable to see how this 
wretched policy sometimes drives whole communities of 
emigrant English families into the ranks of dissent. A 
church is erected, the whole floor occupied with pews, which 
are luxuriously furnished, and sold or let at prices which 
excludes every poor member of the Church from the sacred 
precincts, and, in some cases, gives to non-episcopalians of 
means and wealth the controlling influence in the parish 
affairs ! It is true that by the xxxi Canon of the Church, 
every episcopalian resident within certain fixed boundaries 
is a parishioner, and claims by ecclesiastical law the ser- 
vices and spiritual care of the rector, yet what accommoda- 
tion is made for the poorer churchmen and their families to 
worship God in ninety-nine out of every hundred churches 
which are built ? Have the j)oor of the American Episco- 
pal Church the gospel pi-each ed to them 7 No ! not in 
fifty parishes out of the twelve hundred which are provided 
with parish temples — not in fifty of them on a fair compu- 
tation. 

Have the great majority of parishioners who frequently 
occupy no seats at church, being unable to afford the exor- 
bitant price required for them, as much of the minister's at- 
tention and guardianship as the more wealthy ones who are 
the owners of the pews ? — they require — they demand more, 
double the attention of those whose wealth can pyrchase a 
seat in the parish temple, every foot of which has been 
solemnly made common to all worshippers by the act of 
consecration, and which it is sacrilege to enclose and occupy 



A "voluntary" church. 285 

with pews for the convenience of the wearers of silk and 
jewehy, whose accomodations occupy so much room that 
the poor are thrust out of the Lord's courts. 

The constitution, canons, and Prayer Book, and the pre- 
tensions of the Church episcopal in the United States do 
not in any place recognize such a thing as a rich man^s 
Church — a genteel denomination — a fashionable sect. 
Episcopacy is declared to be a divine institution ; nay, in 
some of her formularies, and many of her standards, as es- 
sential to the very being of a true Church ; the exclusive 
validity of her sacraments, whether a true or false theory, 
is constantly maintained by her clergy and laity ; and lit- 
urgical worship is pronounced the only edifying one. Yet 
with these large claims. Church privileges are in effect ex- 
tended only to the rich ;* whilst the poor are suffered to 

* The following letter addressed to the Philadelphia " Public Ledger," with 
the accompanying strictures, will serve as an illustration of a crying evil in the 
American religious system. 

Messrs. Editors: — You will confer a favour by an insertion of the following, 
which took place on Sunday evening. A lady and gentleman from the south 
went to St. Luke's church, and finding a pew unoccupied, went into it. Ser- 
vice commenced, when another gentleman and lady entered, owners, I presume, 
of the pew in question, and caused the two stangers to be ejected, which ulti- 
mately obliged them to leave the church. I know you are friends to the proper 
rules of decorum, and most sincerely lament such want of courtesy and good 
breeding. Should this meet the eye of the lady and gentleman in question, it 
is sincerely hoped they will exhibit a better feeling than they displayed on Sun- 
day evening, particularly at a time when the evening services of the church are 
alike open to strangers as well as members. 

A Citizen of Philadelphia. 

On this the " Baptist Watchman" thus comments, under the head of " Pews, 
or the Devil's Toll Gates :" — 

" Splendidly carpeted aisles, pews to match, cushioned and carpeted; with 
brass spittoons, brass name plates on the pew doors, may be compared to the 
devil's turnpikes in the aisles, and his toll gates in the labelled pew doors. Let 
not the peiD-sei/ites call this a rude or harsh camparison, for not to call things 
by their proper names is only one degree removed from worshipping the devil, 
and St. Lucifer's churches would be more german to the truth than St. Luke's 



286 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

wander into all the mazes of ruinous schism and even of 
scepticism. This fact in relation to the American Church, 
which I record in the deepest sorrow, it must be admitted 
is a strong argument in favour of an endowed national 
RELIGION. The noble Bishop of New Jersey has done 
something towards the correction of the evil in the establish- 
ment of Sunday offerings and parochial schools ; let him 
follow up his plans of improvement, and let others, instead 
of weakening and endeavouring to embarrass him in his 
schemes of far-sighted policy, strengthen his hands and 
second his efforts. 

Christmas Day, 1840. — I this day accompanied two 
clerical brethren to St. Luke's. It is a new building of 
large dimensions, lately erected in the fashionable quarter 
of the town. Mr. Spear, rector of the parish, preached on 
the occasion to an overflowing audience. His sermon was 
a practical one, delivered with good effect, and particularly 
appropriate. The building is a Grecian design, with Co- 
rinthian portico and columns in front, and classic decorations 
in the interior, but the bright colours, and prevalence of 
white throughout the church, especially at the altar end, 
was a severe trial to the eyes, which the sofa-backed pews 
failed to make endurable. 

or St. Philips', for all pew-scyite temples of pride and vanity. God's temples 
should have inscribed on their portals, ' Open to All, Closed to None.' 

" Velvet and silk, gilt and costly embellishments, — are these necessary to 
prayer, to worship 1 The Master said, " where two or three are gathered together 
in my name, there am I in the midst of them," The inconsistency we have 
thus exposed begets another, and that is the anxiety of modern Christians to 
imitate the ancient Jews in loving the chief seats in these synagogues — these 
pews — as though the seat and its location were of such importance that with- 
out both are to the whim of the church goers, they cannot worship ! Tvo or 
three hundred dollars paid for a spot in the church to sit in ! ! Oh ! this money 
changing ! oh ! the selling doves of modern Christians." 

Such a rebuke, though rather coarsely applied, is well merited. Where will 
the most costly fanes of England furnish a similar example of effeminate luxuri- 
otisness, and anti-Christian monopoly 1 



CHAPTER XLVI. 



THE ALLEGHANIJES. 



On Saturday the 30th of January I set off on my pur- 
posed western tour, and reached Columbia the same day. 
This populous town, which I had before frequently visited, 
during my stay at York, lies on the west bank of the Sus- 
quehanna, and possesses great facilities for trade by its 
canal communication with Havre de Grace at the juouth of 
that important river, and the railroad east and west wliicJi 
passes through it, A bridge of a mile's length unites it to 
Wrightsville, on the opposite bank. The river prospects m 
this neighbourhood are particularly fine. I found the same 
kind receptions from a circle of private priends in Columbia 
that I often before experienced, which will live in my re- 
membrance as long at least as gratitude and appreciation 
of worth is an emotion of my breast. Here I spent Sun- 
day. 

The next day, after visiting several of my late parish- 
ioners* living in Columbia and Wrightsville, I proceeded to 
York, where, though fain to prosecute my journey the 
same day, I was detained by the importunity of friends till 
Saturday. Mr. Campbell, the vestry's secretary, informed 
me that several applications had been made for the rector- 
ship of the parish since my resignation was received, but 

* Messrs. Houston, Atkins, Schull, (ex-churchwarden) Shults and Mifflin. In 
these worthy families nothing of good EngUsh hospitality and refinement were 
wanting. 



288 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

that the general preference of the vestry and congregation 
seemed in favour of Mr. John H. Marsden, the principal of a 
young ladies' seminary in the adjoining county of Adams, 
who was about to resign his post on account of ill health, 
which the confinement of school keeping aggravated. This 
information gave me the liveliest pleasure from a knowl- 
edge of Mr. Marsden's devotedness and efficiency. He had 
been admitted to Holy Orders in St. John's, and was per- 
sonally acquainted with several of the parishioners, whose 
children had been trained at his school. 

Bidding a final adieu to York, I travelled in a stage 
coach along the turnpike to Chambersburg, distant seventy 
miles, where I spent the Sunday. The road took me through 
Abbotstown, and Gettysburg, the former a Dutch looking 
village in Adams county where we dined, and the latter the 
shire town of the same, and the seat of a Lutheran college 
and Theological Seminary. 

Chambersburg is the capital of the next county of 
Franklin, situated in the midst of a fertile valley, on one of 
the tributary rivers of the Potomac. On looking out of the 
coach, as we drove up to the inn, I perceived that a heavy 
fall of snow had commenced since the day closed, and 
every object was concealed with the fleecy covering. The 
storm continued all day, and was succeeded in the evening 
by a sharp frost. I began to question the expediency of 
prosecuting my journey in the winter (which seemed to be 
almost closed when I left Philadelphia), but being unable 
to postpone it, and determined at all risks to see Cincinnati, 
I proceeded by the railroad to Hagerstown, in Maryland, 
through which the " National Road" to Wheeling passes. 

The covering of snow gave Hagerstown a very dismal 
appearance. The town ranks the third, I believe, in Mary- 
land ; the houses are handsomely built of stone and brick, 
and the inns are commodious and well appointed. St. 



THE ALLEGHANIES. 289 

John's, the parish church, is one of the largest and best con- 
structed in the state. 

The capacious stage was soon filled with male travellers, 
and the journey over the Alleghanies commenced in good 
earnest. The national road, which we followed, runs in a 
very direct line through all the middle states of the Union 
to the westernmost part of civilized habitation, and is in- 
tended to be carried to the Rocky Mountains. It was a 
government undertaking, and is well Macadamized ; equal 
in all respects, except the absence of any raised side-walks, 
to an English turnpike. Our six horses were in excellent 
condition, and the passengers (as American travellers al- 
ways are) were in excellent spirits. 

The ascent was very gradual, and the road undulating 
till we reached Prattsville, a small village at the foot of 
Rugged Mountain, which disclosed, when we reached its 
summit, an extensive and variegated prospect. The snow 
was melting fast, and the objects became more defined as 
we proceeded, till night closed in. 

At Cumberland we were detained for some time, and 
made an early breakfast before proceeding. It is a town 
of no particular pretensions, on the north bank of the Po- 
tomac River, and near the foot of another ascent called 
Will's Mountain. After a few miles were passed the road 
became more precipitous till we reached the " Back Bone" 
of the Alleghany range, and beheld, on looking behind, a 
view of astonishing extent. We were now three thousand 
feet above the level of the ocean, and soon descended on 
the west side with fearful rapidity. About twenty miles 
brought us to the line between the states of Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, when we again entered upon the latter, and 
refreshed ourselves at a village called Petersburg. 

The next twenty-five miles conducted us through the 
middle of Fayette county, passing several villages and 

19 



290 ECCLESIASTICAL R■EMINISCE^X•ES. 

numerous farm-houses, to Union, the shire town, which 
we reached at eleven o'clock. We now pursued our 
way in the dark to Washington, the shire town of Wash- 
ington county and seat of a college, thirty miles fur- 
ther, where we arrived at early dawn. Here we found 
an excellent breakfast ready for us, to which, after the 
tedious night travel and a biting wind, we addressed our- 
selves with well-prepared appetites. I began now to find 
that American stage travelling was no joke ; and deter- 
mined that unless the Ohio river was perfectly free from ob- 
struction, to abandon any further prosecution of my journey 
beyond Wheeling. The road continued very good till we 
reached that place, which was about two in the afternoon. 

The cold had increased ever since we left Cumberland, 
and large masses of ice were on the river when we reached 
Wheeling. The broad Ohio ! what sensations it awakens 
in the traveller's breast when first beheld ; flowing in its 
onward course for a thousand miles ;* bearing on its bosom 
the merchandize of a vast country, and carrying the living 
freight of the thousands of travellers and emigrants who 
annually pour into Western America. 

We were comfortably housed at the hotel in front of the 
river, and good coal fires made in our private chambers. 
Having discovered that, excepting the episcopal church, there 
was nothing in the dirty muddy town worth seeing, I re- 
turned to the hotel and spent the rest of the day in my 
bedroom. From the window the view of the opposite 
shore of Ohio presented a study for the painter. A western 
evening sky, reader hast thou ever seen one ? American 
sunsets in the cast of the Continent greatly surpass anything 
seen in England, but they are exceeded for brilliancy and va- 
riety of hue in the west, and this one will ever remain in my 
recollection as the most perfect in its beauty and radiance. 

♦ From its source in northern Pennsylvania fifteen hundred miles long. 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

THE OHIO RIVER. STENBENVILLE. AMERICAN 

CLIMATE. 

As the river navigation was greatly obstructed by the 
ice, I waited till the afternoon of the next day before a 
steamboat passed up, which I entered, being desirous of 
making a visit to the Rev. Mr. Morse of Steubenville, who, 
it will be remembered by my readers, and the readers of 
Mr. Caswell's interesting American Notes, has been one of 
the most active clergymen of the diocess of Ohio from its 
earliest origin. Mr. Morse was formerly one of only three 
missionaries west- of the Ohio river. Ohio alone now con- 
tains above sixty clergymen, and the same section of coun- 
try more than double the number, besides several bishops ; 
an inadequate number, it is true, for the wants of the popu- 
lation, but much greater than the most sanguine amongst 
that devoted band of pioneers who, with Bishop Chase, 
laid the foimdations of the western Church, ever expected 
to behold. 

We made slow progress in the boat on account of the 
obstruction caused by the floating ice to the action of the 
paddle-wheels. Eight miles brought us to Warrenton, on 
the Ohio side where several passengers joined us. We 
stopped again at Wellsburg on the opposite shore, long 
enough for me to go over it. It had the usual complement 
of Court House (being a county town) county offices, 
churches, market place, etc., with glass, cotton and carpet 



292 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

manufactories. Seven miles further brought us to Steuben- 
ville, which I found a large, populous, and well built town. 
I preached in St. Paul's church, a handsome edifice, the 
same evening, and spent the residue till a late hour in the 
society of its excellent rector, whom I found one of the 
most agreeable men I had met for a long time. 

" There," said Mr. Morse, the next day, pointing to an 
extensive building overlooking the river, " is the great se- 
cret of success in planting the Church in the western 
states, whether ours, or the Presbyterian, Methodist, or Ro- 
manists. There are nearly two hundred young females in- 
structed under the Presbyterian system. Who can calcu- 
late the influence these afterwards exert in every part of 
the state, as mothers and teachers." 

I was greatly interested by several of Mr. Morse's narra- 
tives illustrating the early labours and difficulties of Bishop 
Chase, whom he had frequently accompanied in his tedious 
and self-denying excursions among the hills and forests of 
Ohio. He spoke, however, in high terms of the present 
bishop, (Mcllvain.) I left Steubenville after a visit as full 
of pleasure and interest as I had been led to expect. 

The steamboat in which I took my passage to Pittsburgh 
the next evening had not proceeded far before the captain 
began to apprehend a stoppage from the ice, and about mid- 
night, the frost increasing in severity, we were made fast. 
We had come twenty-two miles of our way, and fortunately 
were opposite to a small town called East Liverpool, on the 
Ohio side ; but so difficult of access from the blocks of ice 
and the numerous holes, that no one ventured to cross the 
whole day. Next morning the ice the whole distance was 
sufficiently firm, and after numerous falls, and one more 
serious catastrophe, in which a lad who exercised less cau- 
tion than the rest, was nearly drowned, we reached land 



EAST LIVERPOOL. 293 

with our light higgage, and found temporary accommoda- 
tion at an humble tavern. 

Here I met with a gentleman who proved to l)e the 
churchwarden of St. Stephen's parish, whose chinch and 
modest spire, I had been told, belonged to the " Lu/Aerian" 
congregation. We walked across the field that led to it, 
and the warden entertained me with the history of the 
parish, which was of recent date. They were just he said 
deprived of the pastoral care of a Mr. Kelly, who had re- 
moved to another and a larger parish, and of whom he 
spoke in warm terms of praise. The church was still hung 
with its Christmas garlands of evergreen. 

Finding that the nearest point through which any public 
conveyance passed to Pittsburg was at a village about 
twelve or fourteen miles in the interior, I hired a vehicle, 
and after an intensely cold ride, the conveyance being an 
open one, reached a miserable public house kept by a 
Yorkshireman, where I passed the night, and proceeded by 
a stage coach from Zanesville at four in the morning. 
Pittsburg was reached late in the evening. The only 
place of consequence passed this day was Beaver, a pleas- 
ant town on Great Beaver River, one of the tributaries to 
the Ohio. The road for the whole distance after entering 
Pennsylvania affords constant views of the latter. 

The marked difference in the atmosphere of the interior 
of the continent and the Atlantic coast, is vulgarly attrib- 
uted to the timber forests, and the absence of the .same 
degree of cultivation. I was, however, satisfied from an 
investigation of the subject, which strongly engaged my 
curiosity, that this conclusion is fallacious. A glance at 
the physical features of the American continent will, I 
think, explain the phenomenon. Two ranges of moun- 
tains extend from south to north. The Rocky Mountains 
or western range, by far the highest and longest, twelve 



294 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

hundred feet above the sea's level, are a continuation of 
the Andes of South America, and extend to the Arctic 
OcearL The eastern, or Appalachian range, commences 
near the Gulf of Mexico, and approaches within a short 
distance of the River of St. Lawrence, a thousand miles 
long. Between these two mountain systems, lies the wide 
valley, or basin of the Mississippi, the mountains extendiiig 
in pretty exact conformity to the continent, ranging at 
right angles to each other. These two lines of mountains 
produce two slopes to the opposite shores ; and the valley 
between is formed likewise of two inclined plains, whose 
waters are drained by the great Mississippi into the sea. 
Thus it will be seen that the superior elevation of the cen- 
tral parts of North America, accounts for the difference of 
temperature, as an elevation of three hundred and thirty- 
eight feet is judged equal to a degree of Fahrenheit. The 
western, or more properly speaking, the interior of the United 
States' territory, being more exposed to the influence of an 
elevated and frozen table land, the cold is more severe in 
the winter. To this mvist be added the influence of the 
ocean on the coast, which is favourable to a milder and 
more uniform temperature. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

PITTSBURG. THE MOUNTAINS RECROSSED. 

The city of Pittsburg is the capital of Western Pennsyl- 
vania, the seat of a university, the see of a Romanist 
bishop, and " the Birmingham of America." 

The latter appellation, if understood as signifying the 
largest iron, and greatest hardware manufacturing town in 
the United States, is correct enough ; and there is every 
prospect of its rivalling our own Birmingham in population, 
size, and the amount of its manufactures before many 
years. There are about a dozen handsome factories and 
rolling mills, each sending out from four to seven hundred 
weight of goods per annum, worth collectively about 290,000 
dollars, (£00,000) fourteen foundries, annually converting 
300,000 tons of metal into castings, six brass foundries, and 
forty steam engines, and a number of coppersmiths, gun- 
smiths, blacksmiths, and silversmiths' shops ; cutlery and 
tin ware and cotton manufactories ; extensive glass works, 
tamieries, and steam flour mills. The estimated annual 
value of the manufactories of this Western Birmingham I 
have heard stated at upwards of four millions of dollars. 

Nothing could be finer or more advantageous for trade 
than the situation of Pitsburgh. It occupies the point of 
land at the junction of the rivers Alleghany and Mononga- 
hela, at the head of steamboat navigation ; coal and iron 
abound all aroimd it, and are daily augmenting its wealth. 
Its population is fifty thousand. 



296 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Trinity church, which occupies an eUgible position, was 
erected under the direction of the present Bishop of Ver- 
mont, formerly rector of the parish, and reflects the greatest 
credit on his taste and perseverance. It is a stone Gothic 
building of admirable proportions, with a fine tower. There 
is also another church, called St. Andrew's, erected within a 
few years. During my visit in the city I received calls from 
both rectors. Dr. Upford and Mr. Andrews. The former was 
for several years a popular preacher in New York, and is 
attended by the most wealthy families of Pittsburg. Mr. 
Andrews was on the point of leaving for a foreign trip to 
recover his health, which was shattered by over exertion in 
his parish duties. He has since visited Egypt and Greece ; 
the parish of St. Andrew's is now supplied by another 
rector. 

After several days spent in Pittsburg, I left on Thursday 
morning for Philadelphia, taking another stage route to 
Chambersburg which led through Greensburg and Bedford. 
The latter is celebrated for its springs, which are strongly 
impregnated with mineral qualities, and are chiefly useful 
in chronic attacks. In the summer, I was told, Bedford 
is filled with visitors, who come for health or pleasure, or 
both. It is charmingly situated among the mountains. 

At Chambersburg I took the railway cars for Carlisle, 
where I had an agreeable meeting with the rector, Mr. Green- 
leaf. I received my deacon's orders at tlie time that he 
was made priest, and had constantly met him in Rhode 
Island, but this was our first interview in Pennsylvania, to 
which he had removed about two years. I found him fully 
engaged in one of the most important of his duties, viz., 
catechizing the younger members of his flock. 

The Church of St. John at Carlisle is one of the finest 
in the diocess, and several of the first families of the state 
for respectability and influence are among the parishioners. 



STAGE-COACHES. 297 

The methodists have estabhsed an institution here called 
Dickenson College, which is a great ornan^ent to the town. 
I reached Philadelphia in one day from Carlisle, by way 
of Harrisburg, having travelled in my trip 775 miles. It itj 
utterly incompatible wnth comfort to make a journey by 
stage in the United States during the winter season. The 
coaches, without an exception, are open at the sides, or only 
|)rotected by a leather curtain buttoned to the lower edge 
of the vehicle ; which, with English ideas of comfort, is no 
protection at all, as the cold air is freely admitted through 
numberless crevices, and the draughts about one's ears, are, 
if anything, worse than the full benefit of the wind, which 
is not always the balmiest in the months of January and 
December, Why close carriages and coaches, public and 
private, should be so universally banished I cannot explain. 
In no country of the world, from the changeableness of the 
climate, and the severity of the winters, is such a con- 
venience more necessary for two-thirds of the year, but 
it is a fact which I can feelingly attest, that during the 
whole term of my residence in the United States I never 
saw one. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

AN ELOQUENT PREACHER. — REFLECTIONS. 

One Sunday, shortly after my return from Ohio, I enter- 
ed the church of the Evangehst, of which tiie Rev. Nathan- 
iel S. Harris was rector. The sermon had reference to the 
rite of confirmation, which was to be administered in the 
afternoon by the bishop of the diocess. 

The message from the preacher's lips gave no uncer- 
tain sound. During the first part of his address repentance 
and faith were held up and enforced with the eloquence of 
a Paul ; " righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," 
were topics in the preacher's hands, which arrested the at- 
tention, while they excited the terror of the hearers, or 
caused the tears of penitence to flow fast and freely down 
many a cheek. Nothing of gospel truth was withheld ; 
no leading doctrine of the Bible connected with this theme 
was concealed ; and having reached this point, the Church 
as the ark of safety — the body of Christ — the New Jeru- 
salem let down from heaven — the expounder and conserva- 
tor of the divine oracles — the medium of spiritual sanctifi- 
cation, was next set forth as part of that truth of God 
which the preacher (in common with every minister of the 
Church) is unquestionably bound to proclaim, though how 
few, comparatively, do so in the faithful and pointed man- 
ner exhibited this morning ! 

I could not but be forcibly reminded on this occasion of 
a late discussion in one of our periodicals, on the subject 



NATHANIEL HARRIS. 299 

of the English Church's neglect, of popular instruments. 
particularly that of preaching, which, secondary as it is 
in carrying on the spiritual life in the soul, is eminently 
successful, when judiciously employed, in calling it into 
existence, and in making efficacious the regenerating prin- 
ciple of haptismal grace. In how many instances— alas 
they are countless ! — is that seed allowed to lie dormant, 
from the pastor's tame use of the important ordinance of 
preaching. Had our Church the policy of the Italian, 
Wesley, Whitfield, and Rowland Hill, would never have 
been the founders of sects. They would have been retain- 
ed by the episcopal heads of the Church, though, like Lati- 
mer the Reformer, they had been permitted to exercise 
their favourite gift of preaching as itinerants : of course, 
under certain canonical restrictions, to which we cannot 
but believe, so long as they could travel about, they would 
have readily conformed. Thus healthy blood might have 
been injected into the Church, instead of the creation of for- 
midable rival communions. But it is too late to spend re- 
grets for the past. Rather let the Church's lethargy du- 
ring so long a reign of night, stimulate to redoubled action, 
and a wiser policy. The late Bishop Griswold, who was 
as remarkable for his sagacity as his piety, thus comments 
on the superior policy of the Roman church : — 

" Diversities of opinion, which divide protestants into 
parties and sects, Rome so uses as to increase her numbers, 
and strengthen her power. In this she ' is wiser in her 
generation' than protestants. We are undoubtedly unwise 
in suffering things of little or no importance to div ide us ; 
and not only unwise but sinful, in suffering such divisions 
to excite animosities and uncharitableness between those 
of differing views. If we would all worship the same God 
and Saviour, teach essentially the same doctrines, in the 
unity of one and the same Spirit, and if all of us each in 



300 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

his own way were to labour in love, the ill effect of our di- 
visions would be very much diminished. They w ho be- 
lieve in and practice what is essential to Christianity and 
necessary to salvation should love as brethren ; and 
especially at the present time, when the religion of Christ 
is so powerfully assailed by those who add to God's word 
on the one hand, and take from it on the other, all who 
build on the foundation of Christ should unite in one and 
the same spirit. No believer in Christ should, however, 
permit his faith to be weakened or disturbed by these di- 
visions ; they were foretold by Christ and his apostles; they 
are a fulfilment of prophecies ; and however they may dis- 
grace religion they confirm its truth. And for the encour- 
agement of protestant episcopalians I would add, that if our 
Church adheres steadfastly to her distinctive principles, and 
her present standards, she is likely to be a happy asylum 
for all who would avoid the idolatrous corruptions or the 
specious infidelity by which the religion of Christ is beset 
on the right and on the left."* 

I am aware of the objections that would be instantly 
raised to any such " innovation''''^ as I have referred to by 
two classes of parochial clergy, viz., the old " orthodox," and 
the modern " evangelical." One would dislike the inter- 
ruption to his indolent peace and quiet, and the other would 
dread the contagion of doctrines conflicting with his favourite 
solifidian hobby. While, however, the Church is recog- 
nized by both, and its itinerant preachers' mission does not 
warrant any course which is calculated to withdraw the 
people from the parish temple, no one, except the resident 
clergy themselves, would be inconvenienced. And how 

♦ " The Reformation," p. 128. 

t The public are familiar with this cant term in the mouths of Erastian bishops 
and indolent priests, applied to the judicious restoration of rubrical conformity 
which their more faithful and conscientious colleagues are aiming to effect. 



ORTHODOX DIVINES. 301 

many a parish would thus be awakened through such in- 
stumentaUty from its sleep of practical infidelity and indif- 
ference on the one hand, and of self-righteous inaction on 
the other. 

Of these two classes, happily, but few representatives 
are found in the American Church. There is a very small 
and very feeble minority of evangelicals among the clergy, 
and of the old orthodox — " the high and dry" as Bishop 
Whittingham calls them — there is only here and there a 
surviving representative.* A gratifying proof of this was 
afforded in the General Convention held in Philadelphia 
last October, (which I attended) when a counter ' Resolu- 
tion' to one submitted to that body, deprecatory of " cer- 
tain writings emanating chiefly from members of the Uni- 
versity of Oxford in England" was carried by a full convo- 
cation ; only two clerical and three lay votes being given 
in the negative. 

And yet the laity of the American Church vmderstand 
their rights as well, perhaps, as the wiseacres of Totten- 
ham and Ware. 

* " Yorick's" description of this class is a just portraiture I — "They have com- 
fortable livings, backed commonly by snug private fortunes ; they give exem- 
plary dinners ; pay visits in roomy chariots with fat wives, fat horses, fat coach- 
men ; they are condescending to curates ; in speech rather weighty (not to say 
authoritative) than verbose — if the latter, prosy ; they transcribe their divinity from 
Stanhope, Claxton, and Pyle; Tillotson is the ultima Tlmle of their theology, 
beyond this period their church is in nubibus. They call the Church " the 
Establishment"; in rubrical observance they follow their. /a^/ienf (literally) to 
return to the practice of their grand-fathers they consider dangerous "innova- 
tions;" some, indeed, preach in a surplice, but that is from laziness, for the spe- 
cies delights especially in the rustle of silk gowns with hugh pudding sleeves ; 
dissent angers them, but popery terrifies ; and they would as soon put on the 
shirt of Nessus as the name of Catholic ; their high Church principle may be 
supposed to have some connexion with ideas of high place, high life, and high 
living." And he adds with equal justice, "Really, if the Church is to wait 
upon these ponderous divmes, she might just as well turn round for another 
long sleep, duller ' than the fat weed that roots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf.' " 



302 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

On Sunday, March 21st, I heard Mr. Van Pelt preach 
after the morning service in St. Mark's church in Ninth 
Street. The preacher and his subject much interested me, 
and I only regretted the smallness of the attendance, it 
being the poorest congregation I have seen in this city. 
Mr. Van Pelt supplied the altar on behalf of the rector, 
who was absent from town ; the building deserves no par- 
ticular notice. The same evening the bishop of the diocess 
preached in St. Paul's, when the rite of confirmation was 
administered to a large number. This parish under the 
care of the Rev. Richard Newton, before referred to, is one 
of the oldest in the city. The building is large and conve- 
niently constructed, and like St. Stephen's and St. Peter's 
without that glare from a superabundance of white and 
red which too many of the Philadelphia churches reflect- 
It is some relief to worship in a church which does not 
bear marks of being scarcely dry from the never ceasing 
operations of painter and whitewasher. But such a luxury 
is short lived in Philadelphia. People in that city treat 
their churches and meeting houses like grown up children, 
who have no sooner well looked at a toy and got accus- 
tomed to it, than it nuist be thrown aside for another. 

The same remark will apply to the private houses iu 
Philadelphia. Next to the quakerly uniformity which is 
observable in their architecture and internal appointments, 
the most wearisome feature to a stranger's eye is the aspect 
of newness which is every where, and in every thing, ob- 
servable. An old house, like an old coat, is regarded by 
the spruce Philadelphians as unfit to be seen by company. 
Northumberland House would be condemned (like a crazy 
ship) by the city authorities, and converted into a charitable 
asylum or a jail — and St. James's palace would be present- 
ed, as an unsightly nuisance. The bricks and mortar 
fronts of the citizens' dwellings are, therefore, not less 



SAIL FOR LIVERPOOL. 303 

bright and fresh to the eye than the paint and paper with- 
in — the latter being generally preferred, as being, though 
less costly, more easily renewed ; — and the constant re- 
placing of new furniture, carpets, etc., for old (i. e. two 
years or so in use,) gives to each house the genuine appear- 
ance of an upholsterer's show rooms. The vulgarity of 
this taste is relieved, I admit, by a few, though a very few 
exceptions, among the older families. 

On Monday, 29th of March, we left Philadelphia for 
New York, whence we sailed in the good packet ship Eu- 
rope for Liverpool on the following Thursday.* After a 

* THE AUTHOR'S LOG 

Our good ship " Europe," Edward G. Marshall commander, left, the wharf 
in tow of the steamer " Sampson" on the first of April, at half-past two o'clock 
a.m. ; discharged her pilot at 4. Land soon out of sight before a fresh breeze 
from W.N.W. 

Second day. The wind which had hauled to the south during the night con- 
tinued in that quarter till the afternoon, when it changed to S.S.E. ; the ni<fht 
is very fine. — Lat 40. 15. Lon. 74. 15. 

Third day. Wind varied from S.W. to N.W., blowing strong. After dark 
there was a thunder-storm with vivid lightning — topsail reefed. 

Fourth day (Sunday). Wind blew all day from the N.W. Weather very 
fine — all sails set. Too indisposed to do duty. 

Fifth day. Wind from S. to S.S.E. blowing a heavy gale; top sails closely 
reefed, and the fore sail taken in. 

Sixth day. Wind continued south till 4 p.m. when it suddenly hauled to 
the west, and the ship pitched into a heavy sea, which carried away her jib- 
booms, bowsprit, cap, etc. — all which were lost; the straining of the vessel ex- 
cessive ! 

Seventh day. The storm has subsided ; wind in the N.W. A calm succeeded 
towards noon; in the evening rain fell, and the weather has become squally. 

Eighth day. The night was calmer. In the morning a strong wind sprung 
up from the south, which continued through the day. We have reached Lat. 
41. 23. Lon. 50. 25. 

Ninth day. Wind blew heavy from S. to S.S.W. with a high sea; constant 
pitching ; a great deal of water shipped ; about noon the wind changed suddenly 
to N.N.W. 

Tenth day. Wind has blown strong from the north all day. 



304 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

visit to the paternal home, we spent the rest of the time in 
London. Thence we sailed on the 19th of June, in the 
packet ship St. James, and reached New York on the 29th 
of July. Fortunate was it that we were no later in our 
English visit, as the first letter after our return to America, 
brought the mournful intelligence of the decease of a moth- 
er, and the other parent survived her only a few weeks. 

Eleventh day — (^Easter Sunday'). Weather fine this day, though strong 
breezes blew from S.S.W. The " dueen of Festivals" was celebrated by pubUc 
worship in the cabin, when I said prayers and delivered a short exhortation 
suitable to the occasion. The captain and several of the crew used prayer books, 
and all were deeply attentive. 

Twelfth day. The wind blew from S. W. all this day : all studding sails 
set. 

T7iirteenth day. Wind continued in the same quarter; we are making good 
progress. 

Fourteerdh day. The wind suddenly hauled to the north, and died calm. 

Fifteenth day. A dead calm all night ; day rainy ; wind from the N. W. We 
have reached Lat. 47. 29. Lon. 21. 13. 

Sixteenth day. Strong breezes from the N. W. ; top sails reefed ; night very 
fine. 

Seventeenth day. Wind still from the N.W. ; raining heavily, with strong 
breezes. 

Eighteenth day (Sunday). The grateful sound of " land" was the first that 
greeted my ear this morning. On reaching the deck our eyes were cheered by 
the view of Cape Clear. 

Nineteenth day. Occupied in making our way up the Irish Sea ; in the even- 
ing the pilot came on board. 

Twentieth day. Landed at Liverpool about 10. a.m. 



CHAPTER L. 

MINISTERIAL PREPARATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 

I HAD put my hand to the requisite canonical papers of 
an old friend (and my groomsman) just before leaving 
Philadelphia for England, and a few Sundays after my re- 
turn to the city had the gratification of hearing him preach 
in St. Stephen's church. William Sydney Walker is the 
editor of an edition of the collected Latin poets, and was 
for many years private tutor in the family of Mr. Johnston, 
a personal friend of George the Fourth when Regent ; 
Mr. Johnston's travels in Russia are well known to the Eng- 
lish public. He died of pure grief, occasioned by the early 
death of a lovely and accomplished daughter during a visit 
to the West Indies for her health, after which as the family 
broke up, Mr. Walker prosecuted the study of divinity, 
and on the completion of his term of candidateship was 
admitted to orders by the Bishop of Pennsylvania. The 
American Church does not possess a riper scholar, or a 
man more thoroughly read in general and theological lit- 
erature. 

The preparatory exercises of a candidate for holy orders 
in the United States, when fully carried out, are more se- 
vere than in England ; though the bishop, with the concur- 
rence of his council, the Standing Committee, possesses 
the same power of dispensation with regard to the higher 
branches of learning. The indulgence (as required by cir- 
cumstances) is more generally extended in the western dio- 
cesess of the country than in the Atlantic States. The ad- 

20 



306 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

vantage secured by family influence and other accidents 
are, also, pretty much the same as in England, both with 
regard to examinations and titles.* Mammon likewise has 

* Though I may safely affirm that the specimen of an examination by the 
excellent Bishop Douglass of Salisbury, narrated by a worthy clerical friend of 
mine in that diocess, has scarcely yet found its parallel in the United States; 
and this through the check which the institution of the " Standing Committees" 
have upon the actions of American bishops. 

Bishop D. "Did I not examine you a twelvemonth ago for deacon's orders, 
Mr. L. "? " 

Mr. L. " Yes, my lord, you examined me yourself in this room." 

Bishop D. "Then I'll not trouble you any further." 

Though the candidate in this instance was fully prepared for any canonical 
literary test, being a scholar, and afterwards an author of some repute, yet the 
cases, I am informed, were quite numerous in which one of Bishop Douglass's 
successors admitted dissenting ministers to holy orders, after a scarcely severer 
scrutiny. In a volume on "The present State of the Church," by the Rev. 
Charles Lucas, is the following : — " I cannot say the number of dissenting min- 
isters admitted to holy orders by the late Bishop Burgess; yet is it not unjust 
towards the clergy of the establishment who have sons willing and qualified to 
undergo a ministerial examination and ordination, that if there be an exception 
to the genera] rule of a university degree they are refused a trial of their jfitness 
because their fathers have not been able (from some imperious cause) to send 
them to the university ; while the dissenting ministers, the moment that they 
are willing to conform, are admitted ; and yet more early is the admission in the 
case of a popish priest ! The qualification of one of these dissenting ministers, 
(I have it from the best authority) for the orders of deacon and priest was of the 
literary kind, most contemptible. It is proper for my brethren's sake, I should 
state this. We, on our part, have a most memorable and hard case in which 
Bishop Burgess refused to advance his own great nephew to priest's orders. 
This gentleman, the son of an English clergyman, had devoted himself to the 
Church, had acted as a zealous missionary, had been most regularly and episco- 
pally inducted into [deacon's] orders by an American bishop, who himself had 
his episcopal consecration from the Archbishop of Canterbury; and exclusive of 
all this, the American Episcopal Church is an original flow from our own pure 
stream, — yet Dr. Lushington (O, pudor!) is referred to, and interprets the eccle- 
siastical law of England against his admission into our Church. It seems that 
this true churchman suffers for his conformity. Had he entered the popish 
priesthood, there would have been no objection to him. While such anomalies 
check our extra zeal, and narrow our usefulness, they weaken the best efforts 
of the laity." p. 79. 



CLERICAL PREPARATION. 307 

the same power in both Churclies. It would be unfair to 
a large class of talented and learned clergy not to admit 
the notorious fact, that prominence of position and the oc- 
cupancy of city parishes in the American Church episcopal 
is no more a criterion of talent or general qualification than 
in the Church of England ; though it must be admitted 
that a higher standard exists in American cities than the 
patrons of London livings require, and that several of the 
most talented among the American clergy chance to be at 
this moment holders of city cures. It would be no diffi- 
cult matter to point to a score of London preachers in the 
establishment attended by good congregations, who would 
not obtain half a dozen hearers in New York or Phila- 
delphia ; nor are there more than half a dozen London 
clergymen, if the odiousness of a comparison may be per- 
mitted, who for elocution and pulpit tact, can be considered 
as at all equal to a fair proportion of the regular preachers 
in the churches of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and 
Baltimore, which are a sort of metropolises to the several 
sections of country where they are situated. It may be ar- 
gued that this fact ,is creditable to the religious feeling, 
if not to the taste of the London congregations, who rightly 
consider the mere act of jjreaching a very secondary part 
of the business of the sanctuary, and are satisfied with the 
other qualities of pastoral diligence, viz. aptness in private 
oral instruction, with (what is admitted to be a very essen- 
tial qualification in the spacious fanes of the English me- 
tropolis) a good voice for reading and chaunting. These, it 
is true, are greater desideratums with a large class of Church 
people than the mere art of preaching; but it is equally 
true, that with another class constantly augmenting by ac- 
cessions from the ranks of dissent, there is a great and in- 
creasing passion for preaching, which the London pulpit at 
present fails to satisfy. The passion may be the result of 



308 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

bad education and love of excitement, but as it exists it 
should be turned into a good channel. A Massillon in the 
pulpit will never lessen the reverence of the congregation 
for the regular service, nor elevate his office of preaching 
above that which he fills at the altar. 

I take this opportunity of inserting the canonical requi- 
sitions for deacons in the American Church, which is made 
fitting from the fact, honourable to my friend Walker, that 
he passed the ordeal of the severest scrutiny in every arti- 
cle ; his examiners in the persons of Bishop Onderdonk and 
the standing committee of Pennsylvania being reputed as 
more stringent in their requisitions of literary qualifications 
than those of any other diocess in the United States. 

CANON V. 

Of the Preparatory Exercises of a Candidate for 
Deacons' Orders. 

Section 1. There shall be assigned to every candidate 
for deacons' orders, three different examinations, at such 
times and places as the bishop to whom he applies for or- 
ders, shall appoint. The examination shall take place in 
the presence of the bishop and two or more presbyters, on 
the following studies prescribed by the Canons, and by the 
course of study established by the House of Bishops. At 
the first examination, on the Books of Scripture ; the can- 
didate being required to give an account of the different 
books, and to translate from the original Greek and Hebrew, 
and to explam such passages as may be proposed to him. 
At the second examination on the Evidences of Christianity, 
and Systematic Divinity. And at the last examination, on 
Church History, Ecclesiastical Polity, the Book of Common 
Prayer, and the Constitutions and Canons of the Church, 



CLERICAL PREPARATION. 309 

and of the diocess for which he is to be ordained. In the 
choice of books on the above subjects, the candidate is to 
be guided by the course of study estabhshed by the House 
of Bishops. At each of the forementioned examinations, 
he shall produce and read a sermon or discourse, composed 
by himself, on some passage of Scripture previously as- 
signed him, which, together with two other sermons or dis- 
courses, on some passages of Scripture selected by himself, 
shall be svibmitted to the criticisms of the bishop and clergy 
present. And before his ordination he shall be required to 
perform such exercises in reading, in the presence of the 
bishop and clergy, as may enable them to give him such 
advice and instructions as may aid him in performing the 
service of the Church, and in delivering his sermons with 
propriety and devotion. 

Section 2. The bishop may appoint some of his presby- 
ters to conduct the above examinations ; and a certificate 
from these presbyters that the prescribed examinations have 
been held accordingly, and satisfaction given, shall be re- 
quired of the candidate : Provided, that in this case, the 
candidate shall, before his ordination, be examined by the 
bishop, and two or more presbyters, on the above named 
studies. 

Section 3. In a diocess where there is no bishop, the 
Standing Committee shall act in his place, in appointing 
the examining presbyters required by this canon ; and in 
this case the candidate shall be again examined by the 
bishop to whom he applies for orders, and two or more pres- 
byters, on the studies prescribed by the canons. 

Section 4. A clergyman who presents a person to the 
bishop for orders, as specified in ihe office of Ordination, 
without^aving good grounds to believe that the requisi- 
tions of the Canons have been complied with, shall be 
liable to ecclesiastical censure." 



310 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

The following is the course of ecclesiastical studies re- 
ferred to in the foregoing canon : — 

COURSE OF ECCLESIASTICAL STUDIES. 

" In attending to this subject a considerable difficulty 
occurs, arising out of the difference of the circumstances of 
students, in regard not only to intellectual endowments and 
preparatory knowledge of languages and science, but to ac- 
cess to authors, and time to be devoted to a preparation 
for the ministry. For, in accommodating to those whose 
means are slender, we are in danger of derogating from the 
importance of religious knowledge ; while, on the other 
hand, although we should demand all that is desirable, we 
shall be obliged to content ourselves, in some cases, with 
what is barely necessary. 

" In consideration of the above, it will be expedient to set 
down such a course of study as is accommodated to a 
moderate portion of time ind means ; and afterwards to 
suggest provision, as well for a more limited, as for a more 
enlarged share of both. 

" Let the student be required to begin with some books 
in proof of the divine authority of Christianity, such as 
Grotius on the Truth of the Christian Religion ; Jenkins 
on the Reasonableness of Christianity ; Paley's Evi- 
dences ; Leslie's Methods ivith the Jews and Deists ; 
Stillingfleet's Origines Sacra?- ; and Butler's Analogy. To 
the above should be added some books which give a 
knowledge of the olijections made by Deists. For this, 
Leland's Vieio may be sufficient ; except that it should be 
followed by answers to deistical writers since Leland, whose 
works and the answers to them may be supposed known to 
the student. It would be best, if circumstances permit, 



CLERICAL PREPARATION. 311 

that he should read what the deists themselves have 
written. 

" After the books in proof of Revelation, let the Student, 
previously to the reading of any system of divinity, study 
the Scriptures with the help of some approved commenta- 
tors^ such as Patrick and Lowth on the Old Testament. 
and Hammond, or Whitby, or Doddridge, on the New; 
being aware, in regard to the last mentioned author, of 
the points on which he differs from our Church, although 
it be with moderation and candour. During such, his study 
of the Scriptures, let him read some work or works which 
give an account of the design of the different books, and 
the grounds on which their respective authority is assert- 
ed ; for instance, Father Simon's Canon of Scripture ; 
Collier's Sacred Interpreter ; Gray's Key to the Old Tes- 
tament, and Percy's Key to the New. Let the student 
read the Scriptures over and over, referring to his commen- 
tators as need may require, until he can give an account 
of the design and character of each hook, and explain 
the more difficult passages of it. He is supposed to know 
enough of profane History, to give an account of ihat 
also, whenever it mixes with the sacred. There are cer- 
tain important subjects which may be profitably attended to, 
as matters of distinct study, during the course of the gene- 
ral study of Scripture. For instance : the student having 
proceeded as far as the deluge, may read some author who 
gives a larger account than the commentators of the par- 
ticulars attached to that crisis ; and also the principles on 
which are founded the different systems of chronology, all 
which will be found clearly done in the Universal History. 
In reading the book of Leviticus, it will be useful to attend 
to some connected scheme of the Sacrifices ; such as is ex- 
hibited by Bishop Kidder, in his Introduction to the Penta- 
teuch, and by Mr. Joseph Mede in some of his discourses. 



312 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

A more full and interesting interpretation of the Prophecies 
than can be expected from the commentators, will be de- 
sirable, and for this purpose let Bishop Newton's work be 
taken. — Between the study of the Old Testament and 
that of the New^ should be read Prideaux's and Shuck- 
ford's Connections. With the New Testament should be 
taken some book relating to the Harmony of the Gospels^ 
as McKnight's or Bishop Newcome's. Let the student be- 
fore entering on the Gospels, read Dr. Campbell's Intro- 
ductory Dissertations. Toward the close of the Gospels 
the subject of the Resurrection should be particularly at- 
tended to ; for which purpose, let there be taken either Mr, 
West on the subject, or Bishop Sherlock's Trial of the 
Witnesses. 

" After the study of the Scriptures, let attention be given 
to Ecclesiastical History, so far as to the Council of Nice. 
This period is distinctly taken, from a desire that the por- 
tion of history preceding it, as well as the opinions then 
entertained, may be learned from original writers, which 
may be considered as one of the best expedients for the 
guarding of the student against many errors of modern 
times. The writers of that interval are not numerous or 
bulky. Eusebius is soon read through ; and so are the 
Apostolic Fathers. Even the other writers are not volumi- 
nous, except Origen, the greater part of whose works may 
be passed over. The AjJOstoUc Fathers may be best read 
in Cotelerius' edition ; but there are translations of most of 
them, by Archbishop Wake and the Rev. William Reeves., 
— Cave's Lives of the Apostles and Fathers may be profit- 
ably read at this period. 

" This stage of the student's progress seems most proper 
for the study of the two questions, of our Lord's Divinity, 
and of episcopacy. The aspect of early ivorks on these 
subjects, best enables us to ascertain in what shape they 



CLERICAL PREPARATION. 313 

appear to the respective writers. And it is difficult to sup- 
pose, on the ground of what we know of human nature, 
that during the first thr'ee centuries, either the character 
of Christ should have been conceived of as materially 
different from what had been the representation of it by the 
first teachers of our religions ; or, that there should have 
been a material change of Church Government, without 
opposition to the innovation. For the former question, let 
the works of Bishop Bull and the Rev. Charles Leslie be 
taken, to which may well be added the late controversy 
between Bishop Horsley and Dr. Priestly ; and for the lat- 
ter, Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, Archbishop Potter 
on Church Government, and Daubeny's Guide to the 
Church. As the Lord Chancellor King published a book 
on the Discipline of the Primitive Church, in which he 
has rested episcopacy on insufficient grounds unwarily ad- 
mitted by many on his authority — let the student read his 
book, and the refutation of it in Mr. Slater's Origiiial Draft 
of the Primitive Church. 

" After this, let the student go on with the history of the 
fourth century, from Mosheim. But it will be of advan- 
tage to him to turn to Fleury's History, for the epitomes 
there given of the writings of the eminent men who abound- 
ed in tJiat century and part of the next. Let him then re- 
turn to Mosheim, and go on with that writer to the Refor- 
mation. Here let him pause and study as the main hinges 
oi popery, its pretences to supremacy, and infallibility, on 
which there will be found satisfactory matter in Mr. Chil- 
lingworth's Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Sal- 
vation, and Dr. Barrow's Treatise of the Pope^s Suprem,- 
acy. Here also let there be read Father Paul's History of 
the Council of Trent. Then let the student resume Mo- 
sheim. But it will be best, if, for a more minute knowl- 
edge of the History of the Church of England, since the 



314 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Reformation^ he take along with him Colher's History — a 
very able work, but in the reading of which some allow- 
ance must be made for peculiar prejudices. On coming, in 
the reign of Elizabeth, to the questions which arose between 
the divines of the Established Church and the presbyte- 
rians, then known by the name cf puritans^ let recourse 
be again had to Mr. Hooker's work, and to the London 
Cases. Then let Mosheim be proceeded with to the end. 

" After these studies, and not before, let Divinity be read 
in a systematic method. Bishop Pearson's Exposition of 
the Creed may be considered as a small system, and, on 
account of the excellence of the w^ork, is recommended ; as 
also. Bishop Burnet's Exposition of the Thirty-nine Ar- 
ticles. Then let a larger system be taken ; suppose Stack- 
house's Body of Divinity, with the addition of the follow- 
ing modern works : Elements of Christian Theology, by 
the present Bishop of Lincoln, and The Scholar Armed. 
That many works of this sort are not mentioned, is because 
we think their utility is principally confined to arrange- 
ment, and suppose that the knowledge they convey is to 
be obtained from the Scriptures, and judicious commen- 
tators." 

It seems necessary to this course of study to recommend 
the Serni07is of some of the distinguished preachers, who 
have so abounded in the Church of England for some ages 
past ; and the only matter will be, from among many of 
great name, to select a convenient number. 

" It seems unnecessary to require attention to the history 
of the Common Prayer, the grounds on which the differ- 
ent services are constructed, and the meaning of the Ru- 
brics. Perhaps a careful study of Dr. Wheatty on the 
Common Prayer, and the late work of Mr. Reeves will be 
sufficient. 

Some books should be read on the Duties of the Pas- 



CLERICAL PREPARATION. 315 

toral Office ; such as St. Chrysostom on the Priesthood, 
Bishop Burnet 07i the Pastoral Care, and Bishop Wilson's 
Parochialia. It is, however, to be remembered that one 
reason for studying carefully the Book of Common Prayer, 
and its Rubrics is, that by the help of these, in connection 
with what belongs in Scripture to the Ministerial character, 
sufficient information of its duties may be had. 

"A knowledge of the Constitution and the Canons 
should be held absolutely necessary. And it is to be hoped 
that they will on this account be soon published detached 
from the journals. 

" To set down what books shall be essential, no student 
to be ordained without being fully "prepared to answer on 
them, is more difficult. The lowest requisition is as fol- 
lows: — Paley's Evidences; Mosheim with a reference to 
Mr. Hooker for the Episcopacy ; Stackhouse's Body of 
Divinity, and Mr. Reeves on the Conimoii Prayer ; the 
Constitutio?i and Canons of the Church ; allowing in the 
study of the Scriptures, a latitude of choice among ap- 
proved Commentators : it being understood that if the stu- 
dent cannot, on the ground contained in some good com- 
mentary give an account of the different books, and ex- 
plain such passages as may be proposed to him, this is of 
itself a disqualification. 

" During the whole course of study, the student will en- 
deavour by the grace of God, to cultivate his heart by at- 
tention to devotional and jjractical treatises." 

This course of studies was established by the House of 
Bishops in 1804, and usually occupies a student three years. 
It is that which, with such substitutions as are preferred by 
the tutor, is followed by private students of theology, and 
ministers from dissenting denominations who enter the 
Church. The latter are considered as " candidates," and 
read English theology for at least six months, when they 



316 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES- 

are eligible to orders on meeting the usual examination for 
deacons ; the period of time during which they were them- 
selves students in such denomination, added to this period 
of six months, being allowed to make up the canonical re- 
quisition of three years' candidateship. In such cases the 
course of study is necessarily abridged, though the order is 
observed. To instance a case within my own knowledge : 
two books only on the evidences of Christianity (Paley and 
Mcllvaine) were read, with the ^'- Analogy.''^ O^ Doyle 
and 3Iant, McKnight on the Ejnstles, with Ernesti^s In- 
terpretations wore the only companions in studying the 
Scriptures ; a smaller Church History was substituted for 
Mosheini ; Hooker''s Ecclesiastical Polity, and Bishop 
Hopkin^s " Primitive Church,^'' were the only books read 
on the Church ; and in the divinity course the same stu- 
dent read Pearson on the Creed, Burnet on the Articles, 
and the Sertnojis of Bishops Seabury and Griswold. Time 
would not allow of a more extended course, and the candi- 
date had already studied divinity systematically ; — but it 
may fairly be questioned whether a very large proportion 
of the English clergy have given more than a cursory 
glance at the leading standards in the foregoing list, while 
not a few have confined their reading to Paley. 



CHAPTER LI. 



THE RUBRIC. 



Habit with him was all the test of truth ; 
" It must be right: Tve daiie it from my youth." 
Questions he answered in as brief a way ; 
" It must be wrong — it was of yesterday." 

Crabbe. 

On Sunday the 25th of September I attended the morn 
ing service of St. John's church, in a part of Philadelphia 
called the Northern Liberties. Like London, the city 
proper comprehends only a limited district, beyond which 
houses have extended, and now take in several adjoining 
villages. The Northern Liberties is one of the out districts, 
holding much the same relation to its progenitor as Isling- 
ton to the city of London. 

The church of St. John is a cumbrous piece of build- 
ing. In its interior the churchwardens have, however, 
shown their good taste as well as their good sense and 
intelligence by excluding the useless reading desk. The 
whole sacrifice of prayer and praise was offered from the 
Altar. 

The laxity of the English bishops in enforcing the rubrical 
law, and permitting the gross inconsistences of costume and 
ritual observances which our churches exhibit to become by 
long usage familiarised to the public eye, and consequently 
regarded by vulgar ignorance, as essential parts and fea- 
tures of " a protestant Church," is now felt in the American 
communion, and has already produced much dissension in 



318 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

certain local districts. The inconsistency of practice in the 
mother Church with the written canon and rubric law in- 
duced the framers of the American canons to omit any 
legislation on the subject of chancels and vestments. What 
is the result? Clergymen and churchwardens have felt 
themselves at full liberty to transform, " modernise," and 
metamorphose their churches to such an extent that scarce- 
ly two can be found similar in design, and scarcely one 
which bears any resemblance to a primitive model. Some 
look like drawing rooms, others like music saloons, more 
like methodist meeting houses, and several bear a close 
resemblance to a theatre, which appearance is aided by the 
prevalence of bright colours, tinsel and glare. A stranger 
to church forms stares to see an officiating minister make 
three distinct exits and entrances, transformed on each oc- 
casion from black to white, or white to black ; and inward- 
ly asks himself whether a change of dress, and the pom- 
posity of six journeys to and fro,* are amongst the essen- 



* To the incredulous, who, instead of using their own eyes and ears in this ru- 
brical strife, take for granted the slanderous calumny of infidel editors, and dis- 
honest party churchmen, that the conformist clergy seek to multiply " forms and 
ceremonies," and who, perhaps, almost start at the above picture of frivolous, 
and worse than popish, (because meaningless) parade, the regular journeys and 
changes of an anti-" innovating" clergyman on each sacrament day are sub- 
joined. Were such follies even sanctioned by law, and the more than partial 
usage of a century and a half only, no lover of a simple and protestant framed 
ritual could object to their abandonment, especially on the grounds stated by 
the Bishop of London: 

" First from the vestry to his pew in the black gown ; secondly (at the end 
of the Litany) from his pew to the vestry, to put off the gown, and put on the 
surplice ; thirdly from the vestry to the altar in the surplice ; fourthly, (at the 
end of the Nicene Creed) from the altar to the vestry to put off the surplice, and 
put on the black gown ; fifthly, from the vestry to the pulpit in the black gown ; 
sixthly, (at the end of the sermon,) from the pulpit to the vestry, to put off the 
black gown, and put on the surplice; seventhly, (when the Communion is over) 
from the altar to the vestry-room, to put off the surplice, when the black gown 



THE RUBRIC. 319 

tial features of "the true Church ;" and whether a hturgical 
form of worship requires the use of three or more places at 
which to perform the ordinary duties of prayer and oral in- 
struction ? 

The evil of this neglect on the part of the Church law 
makers in the United States is beginning to be felt and ad- 
mitted, notwithstanding that some affect to treat the matter 
with contempt, as unworthy of serious consideration. It is 
felt, particularly by the laity, that if uniformity in the 
words of the public worship is a desirable object, the same 
uniformity should pervade the internal structure of churches 
as to their main features. Taste and means may regulate 
the dimensions, height, and costliness of the altars, but 
their restoration to the spots whence they have been in 
many churches sacrilegiously torn down, and the nature of 
the furniture and decorations belonging to them, should be 
placed beyond the caprice or idle whims of rectors and 
churchwardens, or, as frequently happens, female commit- 
tees^ whose knowledge of ecclesiastical proprieties is usually 
very profound. The late Bishop of Pennsylvania strongly 
recommended the entire rejection of the reading desk, on 
the ground of its manifest uselessness^ and the gain effected 
in additional room, and the Bishop of New Jersey wishes 
to abolish both in the smaller churches and chapels, con- 
fining the whole of the devotional part of the service to its 
proper place, the altar, and using the eagle or moveable 
Bible stand, from which the Proper Lessons are read, for 
the sermon, homily or exhortation.* The practice of the 

is again resumed to walk home in, rejoicing in anti-" Puseyite" simplicity, and 
despising " Puseyite pomp." — English Churchman. 

* " For what does the pulpit in most of our churches serve but to set the 
preacher to the greatest disadvantage with the people over whose head he is 
elevated 1 For what is a pulpit needed more than a desk 1 Why not remove 
the Holy Table back (again) and set it up a step or two on a board platform, 
with the chancel space before it "? Then, as the prayers ar.^ offered from the 



320 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

latter prelate is to deliver the sermon or exposition imme- 
diately after the Gospel, (the Nicene Creed being thrown 
out in this place in the American Prayer Book,) and then 
to proceed to the Offertory as the English rubric enjoins. 
This course, especially when no metrical hymn or anthem 
is sung before and after the sermon, does not allow of any 
change of dress, which the rubric preceding the Offertory 
implicitly forbids, the Prayer Book no where sanctions, and 
the custom of the Church immediately after the Reforma- 
tion, stamps as anti " protestant." By Bishop Doane's plan, 
which is similar to the Bishop of London's, of which, in- 
deed, it had the precedency (being, in fact, nothing more 
than a return to the practice of our fathers) the full service 
is seen in its beauty and simplicity, as designed by the 
framers of our ritual, and as the primitive Christians beheld 
it. Surely ignorance the most unpardonable of the inten- 
tion and history of ecclesiastical ceremonies and vestments, 
or a most factious spirit of opposition against constituted 
authorities, would object to a return to the decent practice 
of the English Church when first reformed, which is like- 
wise in close conformity to the order of the primitive — ante- 
cedent be it remembered to the days of popery — especially 
when that return ensures greater simplicity, and less 
display than the practice long in vogue, though at no period 
sanctioned in the cathedral worship. Our sublime service, 
in itself complete, is broken in upon by the use of two 

altar why not let the sermon or exhortation be delivered /rom the reading stand 
at which the lessons are readl Why should the human exposition be elevated 
above the word of God 1 Why should that which should be simple, familiar, 
pastoral, parental, be forced into formality by the position of the speaker. 
Would there not in such an arrangement be less of declamation, and more of 
exposition ; less exhibition of the man, more of the message which he brings % 
* * * In our smaller churches, where room for the chancel is with so 
much difficulty obtained, the plan may be adopted to the very best advantage." 
— Conventional address 1840. 



THE RUBRIC. 321 

metrical hymns, set to jig tunes, for the sole purpose of en- 
abling the officiating priest to robe himself in his university 
habit ; which if he be a graduate is a piece of ill-timed dis- 
play on such an occasion, and if not is a positive cheat. 
Why should the work of tlie ritualists of the Reformation 
be marred, and the devotion of the Faithful be disturbed, 
and the attention of all be diverted from its proper object, 
l)y the addition or introduction of two or more modern 
hymns., set to modern tunes, and the treble exit and re- 
appearance of Mr. priest to and from his frippery, for the 
sake of announcing to the gaping beholders, 

" Hear the words of a doctor of canon law, graduated at 
the famous University of ? 

Common sense, and common propriety rebel against such 
pedantic and popish absurdity ! 

The New Jersey prelate did not probably foresee when 
he made his excellent suggestion relative to the pulpit, the 
opposition it has received on the ground of the reverence 
which is said to be felt for that piece of furniture from long 
association, and the ulterior aim which it is asserted he 
conceals under it, viz — to banish preaching altogether. To 
both these objections we may reply in the Yankee mode, 
by asking the question — What is a pulpit ? A dictionary 
lying before me defines it as " The desk where the sermon 
is pronounced." Is not, therefore, the stand, eagle, or lec- 
turn supporting the Bible, where the lessons are read, as 
much in every conceivable sense a jmlpit as any other 
form of stand? — -If reverence is felt for any particular 
style or pattern of pulpit, that feeling is certainly outraged 
in the modern rostrums which are as little like the pulpits 
once in use, or a " desk" (which the dictionary defines a 
pulpit to be) as a reading stand or eagle is unlike the for- 
mer ; nay more so. The octagonal or the six-sided pulpit, 
the most convenient and handsome form, where, (as in 

21 



322 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

most English churches) an elevated pulpit is needed, has 
long since disappeared in the United States, except from a 
few of the older churches ; and the rage for something new 
has brought up a countless variety of preaching boxes, all 
differing from each other in size and decorations, but main- 
taining a wondrous resemblance in their uniform ugliness, 
and the luxurious accommodation afforded to the preacher. 
An English friend of mine entering St. Andrew's church, 
Philadelphia, for the first time, in which one of these arch- 
itectural anomalies rears its cumbrous and tasteless form in 
the chancel, supposed it to be a high altar, richly and gor- 
geously decorated (which illusion, the candlesticks, or lamps 
for gas-burners resembling candlesticks, at the top, renders 
complete) till the sermon, when — as he was speculating 
what place the preacher would occupy — no pulpit (like 
one) being in view, his appearance at the summit of the 
supposed altar, produced the strangest effect imaginable. 
Several pulpits in which I preached in the same city form 
a complete saloon, where the easy couch, the mellowed 
light, and partial seclusion invite to soft repose. In others 
the hanging drapery and festooned canopy impart to them 
the appearance of a royal throne. In this particular our 
American brethren might with great advantage copy the 
more becoming English examples. 

Another feature in the externals of public worship in the 
American Church, claims a passing notice, viz. — the music. 
Though choir singing is better attended to as a general 
rule in the United States than in this country, yet the want 
of an uniform standard in the style and character of the 
music, is felt in the same degree as by English congrega- 
tions. The love of variety creates a constant change in 
the selection of chants, anthems, and metre psalm tunes ; 
in which a correct ecclesiastical taste is more the exception 



THE RUBRIC. 323 

than the rule.* In the larger churches of the city, how- 
ever, a laudable preference has latterly been manifested for 
the Gregorian tones ; whicli are executed (as they are de- 

* Since my return to England I have attended service in the following 
churches, and chapels of the metropolis, viz : St. Mary's, Lambeth ; Eaton 
Square church; St. Peter's, Queen-square; St. John's, Westminster; Christ- 
church, Broadway; the Abbey; St. Martin's, Trafalgar Square; St. Gile's; 
the Temple; St. Mark's, North Audley-street; Percy Chapel ; the Savoy; St. 
Andrew's, Holburn ; St. Anne's, Soho ; St. George's, Hanover-square ; Hano- 
ver, Chapel ; Archbishop Tenison's chapel ; St. Mary's, Woolnoth ; St. Georire's, 
Bloomsbury; All Souls, Regent-street; Margaret chapel; St. Paul's, Foley- 
place; St. Bride's, Fleet-street; St. Pancras, New-road ; Regent-square chapel ; 
Christchurch Albany-street; Fitzroy chapel, London-street; St. Marylebone, 
New Road; Trinity, Brompton ; St. Paul's, Knightsbridge ; Trinity, Upper 
Chelsea; the Normal School chapel. 

The contrast in the manner of conducting the service, both in the desk and 
the pulpit, in several of these places of worship to the careless and irreverent 
performances once exhibited, affords a gratifying evidence of that spirit of im- 
provement which has latterly shown itself in the public performances of the na- 
tional clergy. But what a fearful Jailing off", all but about half a dozen out of 
these thirty-two London (!) churches present in altar service, from what our 
national Church once supplied to her children ! ! In only four, besides the Ab- 
bey, is the CATHOLIC RITUAL of England's Church beheld as the Reformers 
moulded it ; and in these four, as a natural consequence, the devotion of the 
crowded attendance of worshippers, attests the preference which the intelligent 
of the English community give to the services of the Church of England when 
properly exhibited, and their excellent effect — so exhibited over the minds of 
the worshippers. To suppose, indeed, that any community would deliberate!]/ 
give the preference to an ill executed, slovenly performance, over one conducted 
in the manner prescribed by its composers, is to pronounce that community des- 
titute both of taste and common sense. I may add, in parenthesis, that the 
music at several of the largest of these churches — little as there is of it — is an- 
other disgrace to the incumbents : or to the parish authorities who oppose them- 
selves to the wishes of the incumbents, to purge the ritual of innovation, and 
produce something like an approach to decency in the public worship of Al- 
mighty God; and who, with the full ability and materiel for conforming to the 
model of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, care so little for their public duty as to leave 
the whole musical and responsive worship in the unskilled hands of that worse 
than superfluous functionary, " the clerk" and the charity chil hen {en masse) 
the screaming treble of these loft-y warblers in the former, and their mechanical 
monotone in the latter, being sufficient to dissipate the devotional feeling of any 



324 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCE^5. 

signed to be) slower than in those Enghsh churches where 
they have been introduced ; though not in the measured 
and feeling strain that gives them their beauty and effect 
in the Latin Church. In only one church in which I have 
worshipped (in Maryland) in which the plain song was 
used for the whole service, (appointed to be sung) was the 
time observed, at all in keeping with the character of these 
beautiful tones, and the effect produced was corresponding. 
At first pronounced " monotonous" the congregation in this 
instance soon became so attached to the primitive metres 
of Ambrose and Gregory that the more modern chants, un- 
less partaking of their character, proved distasteful to the 
worshippers and were wholly laid aside. " Who," asks a 
Scotch writer, " that has ever heard the music of the Gre- 
gorian chant in the Latin Church, can forget the solemnity, 
not unmixed with sadness, with which it fills the soul of 
the worshipper? Whether intoned by devout priests con- 
secrated to God, or by the artless voices of children in the 
sublimest act of Christian adoration on earth, or at the ves- 
pers of each closing day, it seems ever to breathe holiness 
and heavenly peace. It is related of many devout souls 
now with God, that they could never hear the Mixolydian 
song of the Preface without being melted in tears. Sooth, 
no tongue can be adequate to give an idea of the impres- 
sion produced by the plain song of the choir. It is full of 

but the most inveterate " protestant." What a scandal is it to the Church au- 
thorities, that the opera house anJ the popish chapels, sustained as the latter are 
for the most part by the voluntary contributions of the poorest class in the 
community, should furnish better music than our own richly endowed parish 
churches ! ! ! 

In the other department of preaching, the names of Bennett, (the model of 
a parish priest) Burgess, Cooper, Dale, Dodsworth, Dukinficld, Harness, Ions, 
Montgomery, Page, Richards, Tyler, and Villiers, occupy (most deservedly) too 
high a place in public estimation, to be further raised by any panegyric in this 
note. 



THE RUBRIC. 325 

history, full of sanctity. While the Gregorian chant rises, 
you seem to hear the whole Catholic Church behind you 
responding. It exhales a perfume of Christianity, an odour 
of penitence, and of compunction which overcome you. 
No one cries ' How admirable !' but by degrees the return of 
those monotonous sounds penetrates one ; and, as it were, 
impregnates the soul, w-ithout one's ever dreaming of judg- 
ing, or of appreciating, or of learning the airs which one 
hears." 

It must be a source of regret to every right minded cath- 
olic, both in England and^^ America, but particularly in this 
country, that the wretched practice of blending the three 
services of the Morning Prayer, the Litany and the 
Holy Cotn?nu7iion, should have receiv^ed the sanction of 
such general custom ; and the regret is increased that a 
practice so manifestly opposed to the intention of the com- 
pilers of our liturgy, and so utterly at variance with the 
spirit of their general appointments for the public worship 
of this nation, should find advocates even among the 
clergy ! Is it to accomplish the task of getting through the 
heavy duty within the allotted period, that the musical part, 
where the choral service is used, is executed with such rail- 
way speed: destructive alike of religious enjoyment, and in- 
telligent participation in the language of those portions ? In 
the United States, the revisers of the Prayer Book have so 
arranged the three services when performed together, as to 
meet the difficulty in some degree, by avoiding repetitions, 
and a permitted omission of a portion of the Litany 
[placed in parenthesis] which permission clergymen univer- 
sally avail themselves of An increasing number, however, 
adopt the better plan of celebrating the first two services at 
the (intended) hour of early morn, and oflfering the Euchar- 
istic sacrifice at eleven ; a practice which has the sanction 
of one entire diocess, where, at the annual meetings of the 



326 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Convention, the clergy and laity attend matins before break- 
fast, and celebrate the Communion during the recess after 
the morning's sitting for business. 

The advantages of opening the churches for several ser- 
vices durmg the day, are so great and so obvious, that ar- 
guments seem wholly superfluous addressed to conscien- 
tious parish priests, whose desire is to do the greatest 
amount of good to the greatest number of their flock. At 
a time when want of church-room is severely felt in the 
populous districts of the town and country, how happens it 
to have been so overlooked that by this mode the number 
at present accommodated may be trebled, or even (if there 
are two clergymen) quadrupled ? To say nothing of the 
advantages of affording servants, and persons from a dis- 
tance an opportunity of attending church more than once, 
and of receiving the Communion as often as the rich ; (a 
consideration I would press home to the labour-saving anti- 
" Puseyite" gentlemen,) the different services could then be 
executed in a manner more suited to their importance, pro- 
ducing no fatigue to the worshippers ; and the temple of 
God would, by its open porch — its oft-recurring tolls of in- 
vitation — and the acceptable incense of the sacrifice of 
prayer and praise, sent up with due intermissions from 
morn till eve — present certainly a more fitting type and 
emblem of the Temple above during the eternal Sabbath, 
than the present wearisome practice of a compound triple 
service. 

Part of a communication which has just come under 
my eye, in the columns of a London Church journal, advo- 
cating this alteration — or rather this return to the ortho- 
dox custom of our ancestors — furnishes most completely all 
the additional arguments in its favour : — 

" We would strongly urge the desirableness of offering 
to the inhabitants of populous districts, especially if there 



THE RUBRIC. 327 

be a want of church room, the opportunity of attending 
shorter services and at a greater variety of hours on Sunday 
mornings than they have at present, in the combined and, 
to many persons, tedious and fatiguing service of Morning 
Prayer, Litany, and Communion, with a sermon of three 
quarters of an hour, or an hour long. Where there are 
several churches and a due proportion of clergy, this boon 
might surely be granted, without any difficulty ; and even 
where there is only one church, provided there are two cler- 
gymen, we do not see any insurmountable difficulty. It 
would not perhaps be desirable to interfere much with the 
arrangement of our ordinary Sunday Morning services, but 
we would suggest whether some such plan as the follow- 
ing might not be adopted : 

" At 8 the Order for Morning Prayer. 

" At 9 the Litany. 

" At 10 the entire Communion Office, including, of 
course, the administration of the Eucharist. This Com- 
munion would be especially convenient for invalids and 
others, for whom ' early Communions' (at eight o'clock) are 
too early. 

" At half-past 11 Morning Prayer, (no Litany) and the 
anti-Communion Office, with a sermon, but with no ad- 
ministration of the Eucharist, except on the great festi- 
vals. 

" In the afternoon there might be the Evening Service, 
with Catechising, and in the evening, the Litany might, we 
presume, be used, and a sermon or lecture after it. [The 
Greater Litany was recommended by Bishop Grisvvold as 
forming on appropriate third service, before a lecture, when 
a night service is necessary, and so used by Dr. Vinton at 
Gracechurch, Providence.] 

" To many persons, we are aware, these suggestions and 
alterations will appear strange and Avholly unnecessary, 



328 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

but, from practical experience, we are convinced that some 
such division and sliortening of our Sunday services would 
be a most welcome and valuable boon to invalids, aged and 
infirm persons, mothers who are nursing infants, medical- 
men, attendants on invalids and children, persons having 
any particular physical infirmity,* domestic servants, and 
young children, all of whom, by our present system of com- 
bined, unbroken services, and long sermons, are deprived of 
many privileges and opportunities, which the Church had 
considerately and aflfectionately provided for them.t Inva- 

* "Long services and long sermons not only counteract medical treatment, 
and aggravate disease, but send new patients to the doctors. Females of sus- 
ceptible and weak constitutions are especially liable to injury in various ways, 
particularly by attendance at churches in the evening, where an " overflowing 
congregation," stoves and gas-lights combine to render the atmosphere both in- 
sufferably hot and most unhealthy ; and where, after listening to the exciting 
harangue of a popular preacher, they emerge into the open air, which is, by 
comparison, perfectly freezing, we might say killing. To this source, and to 
public meetings, and evening parties, may, in a great measure, be traced the 
fearful increase of consumption in the present day." 

t " W^e feel it to he too doubtful a point to be introduced otherwise than in a 
note, but we would venture to suggest whether some consideration might not 
also be bestowed upon those who have really no valid excuse for staying away 
from church, or for being wearied or annoyed by the length of the services on 
Sundays. As a fad, many persons, especially young men of active habits, vola- 
tile minds, and restless temperaments, are guilty of such conduct ; and the ques- 
tion is, whether we may treat them as we would weak brethren, and make such 
concessions as the laws of the Church admit of, in order to bring them gradu- 
ally to a better state. Again, there are some persons who, with more or less 
excuse, occasionaUi/ take the opportunity of their only weekly holiday to go and 
see their friends at a distance. On such occasions they omit going to church, 
because it would so materially interfere with their plans, but they might very 
likely he induced to attend an early service, of short duration, and some would 
be heartily glad to do so. We cannot prevent persons, who are confined all the 
week, from making a holiday of Sunday, occasionally, and therefore it is, we 
think, worth while to consider whether we should not provide them with an 
opportunity for public worship which will leave the majority of them without 
excuse if they neglect it. We have not much fear that by so doing we should 
sanction or increase holiday-making on Sundays, while it is certain that a con- 



THE RUBRIC. 329 

lids and aged persons are often tired out, and their ailments 
very seriously aggravated, by long confinement in narrow 
pews, and continued exposure to either extreme of heat or 
cold ; while young children are wearied, and very fre- 
quently disgusted, with the monotony of remaining in one 
narrow place for two hours, with little that can interest 
them, and thus they become an annoyance to every one 
near them. When we say this, we must not be understood 
to deprecate the value of discipline for children, but we 
question the propriety of trying their patience unduly in 
a place which we wish them to regard with reverent 
affection. They should certainly be accustomed gradually 
to the services of the Church, and not, as many at present 
have, at their early attendance, to sit for two long hours 
in a strange place, where tliey must neither move nor ask 
a single question. How often have we pitied poor little 
charity-children, thrust up into the highest and most distant 
and dark corner of the church, where they can hear nothing 
but the organ, and where they must, in warm weather, be 
almost stifled with the closeness of the atmosphere ; with- 
out permission, and almost without power, to move, during 
two services, (one of great length,) and two long inaudible, 
or unintelligible, sermons. We can hardly wonder, if after 
they leave school, they avoid a place which must be asso- 
ciated in their minds with irksome monotony, and unre- 
lieved weariness. Upon domestic servants, a division and 

siderable amount of good would be cfTccted. Then there are others, who follow 
their callings the greater part of Sunday, such as cabmen, omnibus-men, po- 
licemen, watermen, barbers, etc., who, from their very numbers, are worth a 
thought." 

This suggestion deserves a more prominent place than that of a note. But if 
the London clergy do not speedily second the large-minded plans of their dio- 
cesan, and (to use an Americanism) " walk up to the work" before them, the 
" City Mission Society" which is practically a perfectly organized episcopal 
association, will be beforehand with them amongst this hitherto neglected class. 



330 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

shortening of the services must confer a most valuable 
benefit, as nearly all might then go once, if not twice, to 
church on Sunday, if their employers were disposed to af- 
ford them facilities. Where there was the daily service, say 
Morning Prayer at 8, and Evening Prayer at 7, there might 
be Litany at 10 or 11, on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 
this latter would afford two more opportunities a week for 
the classes whose claims we have been urging. We are 
quite confident, that if the plan we have here suggested 
were tried, and persevered in, we should, in time, obtain 
many worshippers, and those more willing, cheerful, and 
sincere. This would be the most legitimate, the most im- 
mediate, and the most economical ' Church Extension,' 
even though an additional clergyman or two were required 
in large parishes. We are no great admirers of novelty in 
our puljlic services, except where novel obedience is substi- 
tuted for ' old-fashioned' disobedience, but we cannot help 
thinking that the novelty, as well as the variety of this 
arrangement, would be no undue or ill-timed concession 
to the temper and spirit of the times. This would not be 
against the law of the Church ; whereas concessions are 
constantly being made in the very teeth of her laws, and 
in violation of the consciences of the clergy, and the privi- 
leges of the laity." 

With regard to a distinct hour of service for the Litany, 
recommended by this writer, it may be remarked that it is 
the opinion of eminent rubricians, that the word " Sundays" 
in the rubric appointing when the longer Litany shall be 
sung, was originally either a clerical or a typographical 
error : that service being peculiarly a penitential supplica- 
tion designed exclusively for Wednesdays and Fridays 
(Jience called "Litany days") and on other fast days "when 
it shall be commanded by the ordinary." On Sunday, as a 
festival, the shorter Litany in the Morning Prayer w^as 



THE RUBRIC. 331 

alone designed to be used by the Church. The conjecture 
is more than reasonable ; and accords with the opinion of 
Bishop Griswold (expressed at the Convention of his diocess 
during my connection with it) on the inexpediency of 
lengthening the period of worship by the common practice 
of lumping the three offices in the morning worship : " a 
powerful obstacle," he stated, " to the increase of the Church 
in America." Bishop White also recommended the correc- 
tion of this abuse. The evil is magnified in England by 
the greater length of the Litany, the unavoidable repetition 
of Creeds, Pater Nosters, and Collects, and the introduction 
of the Anthem ; which, added to the metre singing, forms 
a service of such fearful length, that (whilst its oppressive 
weariness, especially when all read,* does not warrcuit de- 

* The indolent practice of reading what is designed and sd down to be sung 
cannot be sufficiently deprecated. Thus the beautiful variety of our service is 
unperceivcd, unenjoyed by the catholic worshipper. When in the nietropolis, for 
instance, every parish church and chapel possesses the materials (with proper 
training doubtless among the school children) of as good a choir as that at the 
cathedral, the Temple church, Broadway and Margaret-street chapels, etc. how 
culpable is the negligence which omits all attention to this important part of the 
public worship of Almighty God. How are the three hundred well paid clergy 
of London employed, that they leave an important part of the duty which is 
especially assigned to them by the laws of the Church, to the direction of igno- 
rant and incompetent parish subordinates! Was the unrivalled worship of 
the Anglican Church thus burlesqued in the days of King Edward, and Queen 
Elizabeth 1 The following directions, from the latter's memorable " Injunctions" 
to the clergy of her realm, show that the slovenly practice of reading (and in 
wretched style too, in nine out of every ten of our churches) forty or sixty pages 
of ritual, by parson, clerk, and charity children, was never the mode of worship 
intended by the martyr Reformers, when they framed the offices of England's 
Reformed Apostolic Church: — 

" Item. Because in divers collegiate, and also some parish churches hereto- 
fore, there have been livings appointed for the maintenance of men and chil- 
dren to use singing in the church, by means whereof the laudable service of 
music hath been had in estimation, and preserved in knowledge : the Queen's 
Majesty, neither meaning in any wise the decay of any thing that might con- 
veniently tend to the use and continuance of the said science, neither to have 



332 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

sertion of the Church, and a rehnquishment of her privi- 
leges) fully accounts for the extensive disrehsh for the ser- 
vices of the national sanctuary — so different from the at- 
tachment manifested by Romanists to their public worship, 
and the preference given to the shorter religious services of 
the conventicle. The present Bishop of Chester has re- 
marked that a few, very few alterations in the liturgy 
would " reconcile millions of dissenters to the Church ;" an 
assertion which no one can doubt. How tremulou^^ly re- 
sponsible are those parties who oppose every effort on the 
part of some of our clergy to correct an existing evil by 
conforming their practice to the judicious directions of the 
RUBRIC, for the multitudes who are lost to the Church on 
account of an evil so easily corrected ! 

It will not, perhaps, be considered as irrelevant to notice 
in this place, that unhappy and unnecessary strife which has 
latterly disturbed the peace of the Church at home on the sub- 

thc same in any part so abused in the church, that thereby the Common Prayer 
should be the worse understanded of the hearers, willeth and commandeth, that 
first, no aiterations be made of such assignments of hving, as heretofore hath 
been appointed to the use of singing or musick in the church, but that the same 
so remain. And that there be a modest and distinct song so used in all parts of 
the Common Prayers in the church, that the same may be as plainly understanded 
as if it were read without singing, and yet, nevertheless, for the comforting of 
such that delight in musick, it may be permitted, that in the beginning, or in 
the end of the Common Prayer, either at Morning or Evening, there may be 
sung an Hymn, or such like song to the praise of Almighty God, in the best sort 
of melody and musick that may be conveniently devised, having respect tliat 
the sentence of hymn may be understanded and perceived. 

"Item. That the churchwardens of every parish shall deliver unto our Visit- 
ors the inventories of vestments, copes, and other ornaments, plate, books and 
specially of grayles, couchcrs, legends, processionals, manuals, hymnala, por- 
tuesses, and such like, appertaining to the church. 

" Item. That weekly upon Wednesdays and Fridays, not being holy days, 
the curate at the accustomed hours of service shall resort to church, and cause 
warning to be given to the people by knolling of a bell, and say the Litany and 
Prayers." — Queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, p. 10. 



THE RUBRIC. 333 

ject of rubrical conformity. Never was a civil war commen- 
ced and prosecuted on such trivial and absurd grounds ! 
Several diocesan bishops acting in their lawful capacity as 
ordinaries, — with the simple and obvious purpose of correct- 
ing an useless irregularity in the mode of conducting public 
worship, and of directing the parish funds for benevolent 
objects, through the legitimate channel of the Offertory — • 
directed, or merely suggested to their clergy the observ- 
ance of certain neglected rubrical directions in the Prayer 
Book relating to the celebration of the Communion office. 
Who, but the open contemners of law would resist such an 
injunction from the episcopal head ? Admitting that these 
proposed " changes" in one (and only one) of the public 
services are in no possible degree prejudicial to the estab- 
lished " protestant" principles of the English Church, and 
intrinsically unimportant, which many of the non-comply- 
ing clergy concede, then, — on what ground, it may be con- 
fidently asked, is the refusal to introduce them justified, 
provided clergymen hold themselves bound by the laws of 
their oivn Church ? This is the only light in which to 
view the matter. It is a simple question ; which is easier 
evaded than answered. To quote a text of Scripture, or to 
broach an irrelevant discussion on " the comparative claims 
of doctrines and ceremonies," etc., are only the evasions of 
shuffling expediency. We cannot believe that a tender- 
ness for the consciences of their people is the acting motive 
with men whose course of action stirs up in their parish- 
ioners all the latent feelings of rebellion against the consti- 
tuted authorities of the Church. If the episcopal mandate 
required anything calculated to wound the most tender con- 
science, the case might be different — but this is not pretended. 
The only obstacle urged, is the distrust which so slight an al- 
teration in the order of tlie public service is calculated to pro- 
duce amongst the laity in their spiritual teachers — an ap- 



334 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

prehension that the movement is towards Rome. But who 
first suggested this bugbear, is the question ? Was it not 
made the watchword of a party ? — though the proposed im- 
provements have no possible symbohcal reference to any 
thing pecuharly Romanist either in doctrine or practice ; 
and it may be confidently asked, Would a general and si- 
multaneous compliance with episcopal directions by all 
parties in the clerical ranks, accompanied (if necessary) with 
a simple explanation of the reasons for the alteration, have 
produced any dissatisfaction, or opposition amongst the 
laity J Not, it may be confidently affirmed, in a single in- 
stance ! Nay, if the public mind were not in so great a 
degree misled by those filhng the ministerial oflfice, who, 
forgetful of their obligations, encourage popular resistance 
to episcopal authority, the intelligent laity would see in the 
highest oflftcer of the Church, a guardian of their own rights 
and privileges against priestly encroachments ; and in the 
strengthening and upholding of the full dignity and pre- 
rogatives of the episcopal office, a certain security against 
an abuse of the pastoral office. It will scarcely be irrelevant 
to suggest the enquiry, — what does a minister of the epis- 
copal Church of England promise before he receives his 
commission from the hands of the chief pastor ? 
Let the office of ordination furnish the answer : — 
After assenting to the searching question whether " he 
thinks he is truly called according to the will of Jesus 
Christ, and according to the Canons of the Chwch to the 
ministry of the same ?" and promising in detail a compli- 
ance with the Church's requirements, the bishop asks the 
candidate : — 

" Will you reverently obey your bishop, and other chief 
ministers, who, according to the Canons of the Church may 
have the charge and government over you, following- with, 
a glad mind and will their godly admonitions 7 



THE RUBRIC. 335 

To which the candidate for the diaconate rephes before 
the witnessing congregation : 

" I will endeavour so to do, the Lord being tny helper.''^ 

To make this engagement doubly binding, the same 
party when advanced to the higher office in the sacred 
ministry — the full priesthood — renews this vow of obedience 
to the bishop, adding another " to submit himself (also) to 
the god\y judgment of his superior." 

Which engagements, so publicly and emphatically made, 
and inseparably bound to his soul by the seal of the Holy 
Eucharist — then partaken on his bended knees — an honest 
man will respect. 

A knave only, and an arrant one, will set his bishop's 
injunctions at defiance ; treat contemptuously his brotherly 
suggestions ; and claim it a mark of his "gospel freedom" 
that he is independent of episcopal interference. Nor does 
the " evangelical" preaching and creed of such a man exon- 
erate him from the imputation of wilful dishonesty. 

But there are other engagements binding on every in- 
stituted minister of the Church (" evangelicals as well as 
" Puseyite") which, however little regarded by those whose 
resistance to " episcopal interference" is a test of their 
" evangelical" soundness, bears still more expressly on this 
subject. 

In the " Letter of Institution" which a rector or vicar re- 
ceives from his bishop, the new incumbent is only " licensed 
and authorised" to hold his cure while "complying with 
the rubrics and canons of the Church, and witli such law- 
ful directions as he shall at any time receive from the 
bishop." He is further admonished " faithfully to feed that 
portion of the flock of Christ intrusted to him ; not as a 
man pleaser, but as continually bearing in mind that he is 
accountable to [his bishop] here, and to the Chief Bishop, 
and Sovereign Judge of all hereafter." 



336 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Nor is this all : The interpretation of the rubrics, by the 
Church's rules, rests with the bishop, who is the only and, 
if he chooses to exert the legal as well as inherent powers 
of his office, the_^/ia/ arbiter in every dispute which may 
arise between a minister and his congregation. In addition 
to which the Canons of the Church, by which every cler- 
gyman is solemnly bound, as distinctly assign to the epis- 
copal officer the jurisdiction in all matters relating to the 
Ritual. The directions for the regulation of our public 
worship are few and simple ; their observance easy, and if 
even complied with minutely would never have awakened 
the hostility of the laity but for the factious objections of 
indolent or demagogue priests, to whom the peace of the 
Church was a secondary consideration when their own 
ease or temporary popularity was the object to be secured. 
That some few have acted ignorantly it is charitable to be- 
lieve ; not so with those who took a prominent lead in their 
resistance to " episcopal interference." 

A more upright and catholic minded course on the part 
of those clergy whose act of contumacy has been a signal 
for the lower ranks of Church officials to copy their spirit, 
would have saved the latter from that unenviable fame 
which they have in several cases obtained, by their delicate 
apprehension of the relation subsisting between subordinate 
parish authorities and the episcopal heads of the Church. 
Had they informed themselves of the historical, as well as 
the received meaning of the term " protestant," and of the 
custom of other " protestant" Churches and Communions ; 
had a little information on these points being obtained from 
the proper source, before memorialising the episcopal officer, 
and in said memorials, protests, and vestry speeches deter- 
mining what are, and what are not, the distinctive features 
of a Reformed Church, they would have escaped the posi- 
tion which they now occupy: a better course this than 



THE RUBRIC. 337 

taking the sagacious judgment of the Sunday newspaper 
press, or even than forming their opinion on the partial de- 
cisions of the more respectable daily journalists, whose 
sphere of criticism, however wide, is certainly not legit- 
imately extended to this discussion. If these gentlemen of 
the daily and weekly press do not write ignorantly when 
they take up their pens to proscribe " Puseyism" even in 
the innocent form of rubrical conformity, they only show 
how glaringly truth and facts are perverted for party pur- 
poses. — But a steady perseverance in the path of duty on 
the part of the clergy, will neutralise this (usurped) influ- 
ence in the Church, and in time reconcile even her now 
malcontent members to those admirable provisions for their 
spiritual wants, and that decent and significant formulary, 
which the English Reformers bequeathed to this nation. 
Though the former has been criminally neglected, and the 
latter obscured by modern innovation, the duty is no less 
binding on the clergy to carry out the one, and exhibit the 
other to the letter. In this they are justified in resisting to 
the utmost the unauthorised interference of official subordi- 
nates and their mobbish backers : strong as may be (for a 
time) the faction which instigates the opposition, and injlti- 
ential as may be the political organ which sanctions and 
applauds the outrage. 

The following from Dr. Jarvis's work entitled " No Union 
with Rome," is deserving the attentive regard of these open- 
mouthed advocates for a '' protestant Church," who, as Dr. 
Jarvis's account shows, must, to be consistent, be contented 
to rank themselves with dissenters from the Church, and the 
opponents of protestantism on the Continent, its original 
birth-place. 

" I pass on to that third definition of popery which Mr. 
Hallam calls ' the last and most enlarged sense,' and 
' which,' he says, ' the vulgar naturally adopted ;" I mean 

22 



338 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

that which makes it extend to ceremonies and eccle- 
siastical OBSERVANCES. 

'• Under this head must be included, 1. The presbyte- 
rians of Scotland of all sects ; 2. The Independents and 
Other dissenters in England calling themselves "protest- 
ants ;" and 3. the Congregationalists of this country [Amer- 
ica] and the descendants of the Scottish Presbyterians, 
with the various sects w^iich have emanated from them. 
All these accuse the Church of England and our Commu- 
nion of jjopery in our ceremonies and ecclesiastical obser- 
vances. The use of a prescribed ritual, from which it is 
not lawful for the minister to depart ; the celebration of fes- 
tivals, such as Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany, Easter 
and Whitsuntide ; the observance of fasts on stated days 
and seasons, such as Wednesdays and Fridays, Ember- 
days, Lent, Passion Week, etc. ; the commemoration of 
saints on special days ; daily worship without sermons, 
etc. ; the wearing of surplices, and other ecclesiastical hab- 
iliments ; the sign of the cross in baptism, the use of altars, 
kneeling at the reception of the elements in the Lord's 
Supper, and communion of the sick ; the ring as a token 
and pledge in marriage, and bowing at the name of Jesus ; 
are all objected to as ' popish,' consequently any increase of 
such observances, as reverence in entering a chvnch, bow- 
ing towards the altar, placing a cross over or upon the altar, 
burning lights upon the same, are all looked upon as the 
sure indications of a desire to return to " popery." 

" But they who make popery to consist in these things 
are little aware of the dilemma into which they bring them- 
selves ! There is not one of these observances, which is 
not in use among some one or other of the protestants 
either of the Evangelical or the Reformed Communions 
on the Continent of Europe. The use of a prescribed 
ritual is, I believe, universal. One of the pastors of Gene- 



THR RUBRIC. 339 

va told me they were about to alter their liturgy ; and upon 
my asking — in what respect ? he said, to bring it nearer to 
the Church of England, especially in responsive worship. 
This desire to make their worship more fervent by the 
united voices of minister and congregation, has already 
shown itself in the liturgy of the Canton of the Orisons, to 
which reference has been already made, as published by 
their synod in 1831. They have a Litany which, in sub- 
stance, accords with ours ; and in many of their services, 
especially in that for the Communion, the responsive mode 
of worship is introduced. At Zurich, though the old sys- 
tem of prayer by the minister's voice only is preserved, I 
held the prayer book in my hand through the whole service, 
and can aver that not a word was uttered which was not 
in the prescribed ritual. The festivals of Christmas, Easter, 
Ascension and Whitsunday, with the Mondays following 
Easter and Whitsunday, are celebrated. Passion week is 
observed by services every day, and there are special ser- 
vices for Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday (or High Thursday 
as it is called, in commemoration of the institution of the 
Eucharist) and Good Friday, There are also regular 
week day services, morning and evening, and lectures two 
or three times a week. Such is the practice of the Cal- 
vinists. 

" Among Lutherans, there is the closest conformity to us 
in rites and ceremonies. They observe all the festivals 
and fasts and saints' days which we do. In some of their 
churches, as for example, in Wirtemberg, and I believe in 
Baden, they wear surplices ; not merely the simple garment 
of white linen which we use, but the more ornamented and 
costly garment used in the Church of Rome. They use 
the sign of the cross, not only in baptism, but in consecra- 
ting the elements in the Lord's Supper. They have altars 
with lights burning upon them, and not merely a cross, but 



340 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

a crucifix^ in the centre. They kneel when they receive 
the elements, and administer the wafer, as the Church of 
Rome does, by putting it into the mouth of the recipient. 
The Communion is administered in private to the sick. 
The ring is used in marriage, and they bow at the name of 
Jesus. Let it be observed that these are the original 
PROTESTANTS. If our ceremonies and ecclesiastical ob- 
servances are popish, then were Luther and Melancthon 
eminently papistical." 



CHAPTER LII. 

GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1841. 

The following week the General Convention of the 
Church commenced its sittings in St. Paul's, New York. 
As this meeting of the great council of the Church is per- 
haps the most interesting and important occasion recorded 
in my American journal, a detailed account of it may not 
be unacceptable. 

St. Paul's is the second church for size in New York, 
and well adapted for the services which were solemnized 
within its walls on Wednesday, October 6th. The entire 
body of the church was filled by the clerical and lay dele- 
gates, the former in their collegiate gowns occupying the 
middle portion. At ten o'clock the bishops, full robed, en- 
tered through the great western door, and proceeding up 
the centre aisle took their places in the chancel. What an 
interesting group was that ! The first in the procession 
was the venerable presiding bishop, his head whitened with 
seventy-five winters, twenty of these spent in the active, 
unceasing labours of the episcopate ; his form still erect and 
manly, though his countenance is deeply furrowed, bearing 
the marks of intense concern, inseparable from " the care of 
all the Churches," and a field of diocesan labour more 
severe than any other in the country. Following the 
primate, the reverend form of the Bishop of Virginia ap- 
pears " with shaking hands and whitened locks, an appro- 
priate representative and successor of the apostles."* Next 

• Bishop Henshaw's Life of the late Bishop of Virginia, p. 310. 



342 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

comes the Bishop of lUiiiois, athletic in form, yet showing 
the Unes of care, and an aspect of ill-concealed restless anx- 
iety. How instantly does the imagination follow him to 
the hills and prairies of the west, where his pastoral crook, 
swayed wdth wisdom and judgment, has gathered so large a 
company of converts " obedient to the faith," whose children 
shall call him blessed ; and where his persevering industry 
has raised up two universities. 

" Ever witness for him 
Those twins of learning." 

Bishop Griswold occupied the right of the altar, and 
Bishop Moore the left. Two priests read the Morning 
Prayer and Litany at the reading desk, and four deacons 
served the table by lifting the oblations, and distributing 
the remaining elements after all had communicated. The 
Communion service was divided between the two senior 
prelates. 

The sermon was preached by the Bishop of New York, 
from the text " For whom he did foreknow them he also 
did predestinate." It was a note of peace, like the Articles 
of the Church ; and was designed to produce harmony and 
peace among the assembled representatives of the Church, 
by pointing out the common ground on which they stood 
with regard to controverted points of theology ; and the 
effect was apparently such as was intended. After 1075 
persons had communicated, there was an interchange of 
greetings between the members of the Convention. This 
affecting scene was thus described by a clerical eye wit- 
ness :■ — 

" What a meeting of Christian brothers ! Brethren be- 
loved, long separated, and labouring in different portions of 
their master's vineyard, were permitted to see each other 
again in the flesh. It is not for the pen to tell what was 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1841- 343 

felt amidst this brotherly shaking of hands — the affection- 
ate smiles, salutations, enquiries, congratulations and re- 
joicings — God be praised for such a meeting, — such a priv- 
ilege. It was worth travelling a long tedious journey for — 
a type of what God's children will experience in the land of 
life and bliss." 

The session of the General Convention lasted a fortnight ; 
the house of clerical and lay deputies occupying the body 
of the church, and the bishops a consistory room adjoining, 
which was appropriately fitted up for the occasion. Some 
alterations were made in existing canons, and five new 
canons were passed. One of these related to the absence 
of a clergyman from his diocess without sufiicient cause ; 
another to the election of missionary bishops to the office of 
diocesan bishop, in which the canon directed that a major- 
ity of the bishops and standing committees should concur 
before such translation should be legal ; and another, on 
the trial of bishops, requiring the concurrence of two thirds 
of his own rank, and fixing seven as the quorum of episco- 
pal judges, besides the presenting prelate. 

Many things were debated, and much eloquence lost in 
an effort to obtain the enactment of a canon to authorize 
the consecration of foreign bishops under certain limita- 
tions, in order to give Texas and Liberia episcopal super- 
vision ; but a large majority of the lower house withstood 
the proposition, and likewise returned a proposed canon, 
sent in by the house of bishops to create a new class of un- 
preaching deacons. 

The Rev. Dr. Jarvis, as Historiographer of the Church, 
submitted a collection of manuscripts, with the accompany- 
ing note which will speak for itself : 

" Right Reverend Fathers in Christ, 
" Having been honoured by the General Convention of 



344 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

1838, with the appointment of 'Historiographer of the 
Church,' I think it my duty to report to the House of Bish- 
ops, with whom the resolution originated, the progress 
whicli has been made. 

" It seemed to me that in order to effect the object proposed, 
it would be necessary, if possible, to settle several contested 
points, in such a manner as to satisfy both learned and un- 
learned readers. This could be done in no other way than 
by laying before them in English, that evidence which is 
DOW locked up in foreign languages, and scattered through 
a great number of volumes, and which, from the scarcity 
of public libraries in our country, is inaccessible even to 
persons who by their education are fitted to examine the 
original authors. It is obvious, indeed, that this cannot be 
done in the whole course of ecclesiastical history, without 
swelling the work to an enormous extent. It must be con- 
fined, therefore, to points of great importance ; and with 
respect to the rest, much must be left to the fidelity and ac- 
curacy of the historian. But if he be found faithful and 
accurate in the discussion of these important points, he will 
establish a character, both as a reporter and a judge, which 
will make his readers more ready to trust him when called 
upon to credit his assertions. 

" The exact time of the birth and death of our Saviour, 
the key stone by which prophecy as well as history must 
be sustained, seemed to be one of those important points. 
This I have attempted to ascertain ; and the attempt has 
succeeded beyond my most sanguine expectations. With 
no theory to sustain, and fearing to be misled by the the- 
ories of others, I have made use of modern writers, only so 
far as to be led by them to their authorities. In all cases 
where it was possible, I have gone back directly to ancient 
heathen as well as Christian authors, as being in the lan- 
guage of your resolution, ' the most original sources now 



GENERAL CONVENTIOIV OF 1841. 345 

extant.' Not only has every question been settled on their 
testimony, but the testimony itself has also been exhibited. 
With regard to Latin writers, the original text has been 
generally subjoined. The fear of swelling the work too 
much, and increasing the expense of publication, has pre- 
vented the addition of Greek quotations ; an omission which 
I regret, but which I have endeavoured as much as possible 
to remedy by exact references. 

" I have laboured hard to finish the w^ork before the ses- 
sion of the present Convention ; but the cares of a parish, 
the necessary instruction of pupils, and domestic afflictions 
have rendered it impossible to get it ready for the press. I 
am obliged, therefore, to lay it before you in ctn imperfect 
state, but it is sufficiently advanced to show its plan, its ob- 
ject, and its success. 

" If it be honoured, Right Reverend Fathers, with your 
approbation, I propose, after it is published, to add some 
other dissertations which are nearly ready for the press, and 
then to go on with the Ecclesiastical History down to the 
great scliism by which the Catholic Church was rent in the 
fifth century. Whether I shall be able to accomplish this, 
or more than this, depends upon the will of Him ' to whom 
alone belong the issues of life and death.' 

"Being unable myself to attend the General Conven- 
tion, I have requested my assistant, the Rev. John Wil- 
liams, to proceed to New York, for the purpose of submit- 
ting my manuscript to your venerable body. 

I have the honour to remain. 
Right Reverend Fathers, 
Your faithful Son and servant in the Lord, 

Samuel Farmer Jarvis. 
Rector of Christ Church Middletown." 

The letter and manuscripts were referred to a committee 



346 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

consisting of Bishops Hopkins, Doane, and Whittingham, 
who reported — 

" That they regard with great satisfaction the progress 
which the learned author has made in preparing for the 
press the first vohime of the series, which his appointment 
as Historiographer was designed to bring forth ; and con- 
sider it a duty on the part of the Church to give all the en- 
couragement in their power to its publication. It appears 
to them, as well from the synopsis of its contents, as from 
the best examination which their limited time would allow, 
to be a thorough and comprehensive analysis of all the evi- 
dence extant, whether sacred or profane, upon the most 
difficult and important points in ecclesiastical chronology, 
namely, the precise years of the birth and death of our 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the committee take 
pleasure in the acknowledgment, that notwithstanding their 
familiarity with the author's long-established reputation for 
deep and accurate learning, they were struck with the ex- 
traordinary research and exact fidelity exhibited in the 
work submitted to them, and hail its production as being 
calculated to reflect honour upon himself, and the body to 
which he belongs. With these views the committee re- 
spectfully recommend the following resolution : — 

" Resolved. — That the House of Bishops receive with 
great satisfaction the first volume, introductory to the Ec- 
clesiastical History of the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, their Histo- 
riographer, now ready for publication. They have exam- 
ined, and approve the plan of the work, and commend it to 
the patronage of the Church." 

A correspondence conducted by the presiding bishop with 
the Archbishop of Canterbury and other foreign prelates, 
on the subject of clergymen passing to or from the jurisdic- 
tion of different national Churches in Christendom was 
laid before the House of Bishops, and the canon relating 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1841. 347 

to letters dismissory was remodelled to meet the case ; 
copies of which, accompanied by expressions of frater- 
nal regard from the American bishops, were directed to 
be sent to the said primates. May the day be not far 
distant when the Communion of all Churches, as parts 

of the ONE SPIRITUAL BODY OF BELIEVERS, shall be 

as it was in the first three centuries. "Each bishop" 
we are informed, " could then give to any member of his 
Church who might visit foreign countries, commendatory 
letters which, on being presented to the most remote 
Churches, secured his immediate admission to all the privi- 
leges of Christian fellowship,"* This fraternal intercourse, 
it is believed, will soon arise when the Roman bishop ex- 
changes his triple crown for a mitre, and the various 
churches now in bondage to that prelate renounce their 
condition of dependance on a modern and usurped head- 
ship. 

Another resolution which was taken at this Convention, 
related to the preservation of the records of the consecra- 
tion of bishops, which directed that the librarian of the 
General Theological Seminary should be the Register of 
the same, to be kept in the Seminary library. 

But the most really important resolution to the Church 
population of the country, passed by both houses at this 
Convention, was the following, which will speak for it- 
self: 

" Resolved. — That in view of the rapid increase in the 
population of the United States, and also in order to carry 
out fully her parochial organization, it is the opinion of this 
Convention that the Church should call the attention of 
her members to the duty of providing more ample free 

SITTINGS." 

The American Church has been (unfortunately for the 
♦ Palmer's History of the Church. 



348 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

millions which her exclusive system of church accommoda- 
tion has lost to her) much too late in the day in this part 
of her duty. But is not our own Church to blame for set- 
ting the example, though in a modified degree, to her 
American daughter of " uppermost rooms" and " chief seats 
in the synagogue?" — -a practice perfectly antagonist to the 
parochial system and the spirit of our national Church. 
To carry the parochial system out on catholic (i. e. Chris- 
tian) principles, pews, board partitions, separating patrician 
from plebeian worshippers, fee'd attendants, and sundry 
other anomalies which still linger about our parish temples 
must be banished from the sanctuary of the "poor man's 
Church." The catholic-minded Church benefactor who 
will chair a new church or chapel, confers the benefits of 
public worship and pulpit instruction on thousands, whilst 
he who pews it, excludes thousands from these inestimable 
benefits ; while securing (illegally) accommodation to only 
a few hundred. " The squire's pew" though very conve- 
nient and agreeable to those who desire to carry into the 
temple of God the privacy, exclusiveness and personal lux- 
uries of home, is one of the most odious and un-catholic 
anomalies of our rural sanctuaries ; and the elevated box- 
pens set apart for the wearers of silks and jewellery are as 
unpicturesque as they are anti-Christian, In what other 
country of Christian Europe is this " piotestant" pew-syisTn 
to be witnessed ? Where else but in " protestant England" 
is the altar, and the priest, and the pulpit partially obscured, 
and the sound of the worship intercepted, and the tout en- 
semble of each beautiful church destroyed by similar de- 
formities? In this much needed reformation, the strictures 
of Mr. Gresley, in his recent work on " The real danger of 
the Church of England" on those who " dare to aver that 
the restoration of the genuine service of the English 
Church is an approximation to " popery," equally apply. 



GENERAL CONVENTION OP 1841. 349 

" The folly and falsehood of the accusation" he writes 
" would be its own refutation, if it were not for the incredi- 
ble prejudice that abounds. No doubt it is right to make 
due allowance for honest prejudice. But when tliousands 
of souls are perishing around us for lack of Christian sym- 
pathy ; when many are leaving our ranks for dissent, and 
some beguiled to Romanism ; when too many of our old 
hereditary worshippers in the Church of their fathers, are, 
it is to be feared, dragging out their lives in a listless indif- 
ference, making no progress in warmth or vital godliness, 
and this mainly in consequence of the absurd negligence 
and want of propriety which prevails in our Church service 
— it is surely no time to listen to the prejudices, or regard 
the calumnies, of those who maintain the monstrous para- 
dox, that the restoration of the genuine service of our 
Church is a recurrence to popery. Honest prejudice de 
serves to be respected, but such mischievous absurdity must 
be confronted and exposed. — But it is not only the public 
service of the Church that needs to be thus revivified. 
The whole personal intercourse between the clergy and the 
people requires to be placed on a better footing ; and this as 
regards all classes, but especially the young. How almost 
universally does the parochial pastor lose all influence over 
the youth of his flock as soon as they leave the Sunday- 
school ! How commonly do they fall into sin and indiffer- 
ence, and never, alas, return to the fold ! Much, very much 
is wanting to give the parochial pastor that religious influ- 
ence over his parishioners which shall enable him to be 
their guide through the thorny paths of life, and train them 
for Heaven and happiness." 

The sad truth of these remarks is verified in the success 
of a dissenting .society styled " the London City Mission." 
The success of this league in the large parish of Islington 
was made the subject of boast at a late public meeting 



350 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

which curiosity and the name of a clerical secretary/ {! !) 
on the printed circulars led me to attend. In a populous 
district of Islington a woman, though " sitting under 
the ministry of one of the most evangelical clergymen" 
in that favoured region, " was unable to answer the most 
simple question relating to her belief as a Christian" pro- 
pounded to her by the dissenting ' missionary' from the 
want of oral instruction. The mere preaching to which 
she had been accustomed to listen having never communi- 
cated to the mind of this benighted person a single definite 
idea : a statement which, judging from a discourse delivered 
in my own hearing by a preacher of some celebrity in the 
same quarter I am fully prepared to credit. This may be 
a digression ; but will it be believed by a future generation, 
that in a parish containing 56,000 souls all the churches 
were, in the nineteenth century, closed against the parish- 
ioners, famishing for their " daily bread," morning, noon, 
and evening of each day except Sundays and the greater 
Festivals ? — and that the Holy Communion was only cele- 
brated 07ice a month ? The practice of the clergy of Isling- 
ton, whose solemn engagements are thus slighted (whilst 
they make no scruple to receive the comfortable incomes of 
their cures) is shamed by the example of a dissenting con- 
gregation in that parish, which for the last ten years has 
maintained daily service at 6 a. m. and 5 p. m. ; on Sun- 
days, prayers at 6 a. m., again at 9 with Communion and 
a sermon ; at 10 the Communion, prayers at 3 p. m., and 
at 6 (with preaching) ; on Wednesdays and Fridays (in 
addition to the stated matins and even-song) the Litany 
at 9 a. m. with preaching, and catechising at 3 p. m. By 
this arrangement a small unendowed chapel, furnishes 
through its irregular channels, spiritual food to a larger 
number in that neglected ecclesiastical section of the me- 
tropolis than any three of the churches, of whose use 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1841, 351 

meanwhile the 56,000 parishioners are illegally defrauded 
by their authorized ministers. Oh ! shame, where is thy 
blush ? Compare with this specimen of evangelical indo- 
lence and dishonesty on the part of priests who, as the 
condition of receiving the emoluments of their office, have 
promised " to minister the doctrines and sacraments, and 
the discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded, and 
as [their] Church hath received the same," and " to use 
both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well 
to the sick as the whole within their cures, as need shall 
1-eqiiire^'' with the hourly labour of the papal agents in 
London : 

The Romish chapel of St. Mary in Moorfields, with four 
clergymen, supplies the benefit of public worship to a con- 
gregation of 30,000 souls. To accomplish this, there are 
four daily, and six Sunday services. Trinity church, Ber- 
mondsey, is used by 9,000 Romanists ; and the new cathe- 
dral of St. George, in Lambeth, is designed for the stated 
accommodation of 20,000 regular worshippers. I call tlie at- 
tention of my London readers to the example of Dr. Doyle 
with his three assistants,* ministering to the spiritual wants 
of such a flock, at the altar, in the confessional, and by 
private instruction, as contrasted with the cathedral estab- 
lishment on the north of the river. Attached to the latter 
are a dean and fifty prebendaries, twelve being '• resident'" 
canons ; who receive the ample endowments of the churcli 
i?i trust for performing a corresponding amount of duty, 
public and oral. Yet these unfaithful stewards not only 
keep the principal doors of the metropolitan cathedral closed 
against worshippers the whole year round (except on the 
occasion of two exhibitions) but use the body of the church 
as a pubhc show, for which the visitor — whose right to it 

* The Rev. Messrs. White, McStory, and Tetford. 



352 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

at all hours of the day is unquestionable — is charged ad^ 
mission! ! The bishop, it appears, under our imperfect 
canon law, cannot reach this monstrous abuse. How long 
will the public sanction so gross a perversion of one of its 
most sacred trusts 1 



CHAPTER LIIL 

THE PASTORAL LETTER. — ST. PAUl's CHURCH. 

During the meeting of the General Convention, a pas- 
toral LETTER from the bishops, addressed to the mem- 
bers of the Church generally throughout the country, is 
submitted to the upper house by the presiding bishop, and 
if approved by that body, is read by him in an assembly of 
both houses. This is the last act of the Convention before 
breaking up — except the supplemental resolution directing 
the printing of a large impression of the said Letter, to be 
distributed among the different states ; when it is again 
read in every parish church. The bishops wait for a no- 
tice from the other chamber that they are ready to hear the 
Pastoral Letter, when they adjourn thither, and occupy the 
chancel end of the church. 

Such was the order observed on this occasion ; as the 
patriarchal Griswold for the second and last time presided 
in the council of that Church of which he had long been 
the brightest ornament. The interest of the scene reached 
its height when the presiding bishop rose in his place in the 
centre of the episcopal group, and commenced the Pastoral 
Letter. The following digest will give the reader a suffi- 
cient conception of the usual character of this triennial doc- 
ument, and exhibit its most reverend author as a true cath- 
olic and a sound divine : — 

"Brethren and friends, beloved in the lord: 
" It again becomes the duty of your bishops, being as- 
23 



354 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

sembled with your clerical and lay deputies in General 
Convention, and at their request, to address to you a Pas- 
toral Letter on the state of our Churches [diocesses]. 

" Since the last meeting of this Convention, it has pleased 
the Lord, in his merciful goodness, to continue them gen- 
erally in a state of prosperity and increase. But with deep 
feelings of sorrow we find another vacant seat in our House. 
We have to lament the decease of our much respected 
brother, the Right Rev. Nathaniel Bowen, D.D., who, in 
the midst of his useful labours, departed this life on the 
25th of August, 1839. 

"Still, in the midst of judgment, the Lord remembers 
mercy. We are happy in being able to report, that through 
his goodness, no less than six others have been added to our 
number. The Right Rev. Leonidas Polk, D.D., was con- 
secrated to the episcopal office in 183S, as Missionary 
Bishop of the South West, having for his jurisdiction, Ar- 
kansas, and some part of the Indian Territory, with the 
provisional supervisions of the diocesses of Alabama and 
Louisiana. And at the request of our Foreign Missionary 
Committee, he has extended his visitations to the republic 
of Texas, of which we have been favoured with interesting 
information. 

" The Right Rev. William IL Delancey, D.D., was con- 
secrated Bishop of Western New-York, on the 9th of May, 
1839 : under whose administration that new diocess is 
highly prosperous. 

" The Right Rev. Christopher E. Gadsden, D.D., the suc- 
cessor to our much lamented brother, Bishop Bowen, was 
ordained to the episcopate of South Carolina, on the 21st of 
June, 1840. 

"Tlio Right Rev. Wm. R. Whittingham, D.D., was con- 
secrated Bishop of the Diocess of Maryland, September 
17th, 1840. 



THE PASTORAL LETTER. 355 

" The Right Rev. Stephen ElHott, Juii., D.D., was, on 
the 28th of Febiuaiy last, ordained Bishop of Georgia. 

" And during the session of this Convention, the Rev. 
Alfred Lee, D.D., has been ordained Bishop of Delaware. 

'• You will, we doubt not, rejoice with us, and bless God 
for these additions to our apostolic ministry ; and that they 
have been made with unanimity, and to the great satisfac- 
tion of the Churches over which they are appointed to pre- 
side ; and for the lively hope which we already have, that 
the work of God will prosper in their hands. Our brethren, 
now in all parts of the United States, have the benefit of 
episcopal supervision. 

" We would again ' write unto you of the common salva- 
tion' which is in Jesus Christ, ' and exhort you, that you 
should earnestly contend for the faith which was once,' by 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, ' delivered unto the saints,' 
and faithfully perform those things which are required in 
the word of God, that we may obtain eternal life. 

" The religion taught us in the holy Scriptures may be 
included under two heads :— What we must believe, and 
what we must do. Under the former head is included a 
belief in all things respecting our religious hope, and final 
salvation, which are revealed to our understanding in God's 
holy word ; such as the creation and fall of man ; the char- 
acter of the Saviour, and what he has done to redeem us 
from sin and eternal death ; the merits and other doctrines 
of his cross ; the institution and nature of his Church and 
its Ministry : the number and efficacy of his Sacraments : 
the persons of the Deity ; the agency of the Divine Spirit ; 
and the light and immortality brought to light in the Gos- 
pel, which his ministers are sent to preach. These are 
among the principle things which we are to believe, and 
which are essential to that faith which is required of those 
who would have a sure hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. 



356 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" But the great practical question for those who have this 
faith ; the question, which, in different forms, Avas often put 
to Christ, and his apostles, and which his ministers still 
should be willing and prepared to answer to all who ask it, 
and to all who have ears to hear, is. What must toe do to 
be saved 7 This, in the same Scriptures, we are clearly 
and so fully taught, ' that whatsoever is not read therein, 
nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any 
man, that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be 
thought requisite or necessary to salvation.' 

" Our Church has taught in her catechism what are ' the 
first principles of the doctrines of Christ,' and in her articles 
and homilies, what is most necessary to the obtaining of a 
sure hope of salvation in Jesus Christ, and to the perfection 
of the Christian character. The more carefully you, as 
Christ commands, ' search the Scriptures,' the more will 
yoxx see and have cause to admire the wisdom and piety 
of those holy men, who were instrumental in reforming the 
Church of England, and who compiled, on true scriptural 
grounds, Articles of Faith, and a Book of Common Prayer. 
Since this branch of the one catholic and apostolic Church, 
to which we have the happiness to belong, became inde- 
pendent of the Church of England in its ecclesiastical pol- 
ity, our fathers of the American Episcopal Church, as we 
may now well call them, made some few alterations and 
improvements, that our worship and discipline may be better 
adapted to the state of this country, and the manners of the 
age ; but, as you may easily see, they have carefully ad- 
hered to the sure word of God. 

" But though all Christians may agree that our religion 
is included under two heads : — what are we required to 
believe, and what to do, that we may be saved in Jesus 
Christ? — on the comparative importance of these two parts, 
and what influence they have in our justification and ac- 



THE PASTORAL LETTER. 357 

ceptance with God, there is unhappily some diversity of 
opinion, to which we deem it expedient to ask your attention. 
Many Christians, indeed, seem to find some difficuhy in rec- 
oncihng- or in clearly understanding what the Scriptures 
teach of faith and of works. To remove any doubts or un- 
certainty of this kind must evidently be of high importance. 

" The principle or ground on which we are accepted of 
God, and may hope to be blest in Heaven as righteous in 
his sight, is what chiefly distinguishes Christian theology 
from all other religions. On the much controverted ques- 
tion, what influence our works have in our justification, 
some have erroneously thought, that the apostles even are 
not wholly agreed ; as when one * concludes that a man is 
justified, and not by faith only.' But not only are the apos- 
tles, on this momentous doctrine, agreed ; but among 
Christians, truly pious, the difference is probably less than 
is generally supposed. 

" The Scriptures teach us that man is naturally in a fall- 
en, sinful state, from which God, in his merciful goodness, 
sent his Son to redeem us. By the sacrifice of himself, he 
made expiation for our sins ; by rising from the dead, he 
has raised our hopes to life immortal ; and through faith in 
him, as ' the way, the truth, and the life ;' as our advocate 
with the Father, and ' the end of the law for righteousness 
to those who believe,' we are authorized to look for pardon 
and acceptance. 

" This is indeed an ' unspeakable gift ;' it is a work of 
mercy and grace which passes man's understanding, and 
that Christians of honest hearts and sincere piety should 
have views somewhat different respecting what is required 
of men, that they may obtain the salvation offered us in the 
gospel, is a matter of regret rather than of surprise. Re- 
specting the councils of God in- the vast work of redemption, 
we know in part only, and can prophecy but in part. In 



358 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

that plan of Divine love which clothed ' the Lord from 
Heaven' in human flesh, there are depths of wisdom and 
knoivledge, which no genius of man can in this life wholly 
investigate, nor human reason fathom, God is graciously 
pleased to reveal to our understanding, what is necessary 
for us to know during this present life ; and with this 
should we be contented, and for it thankful ; not indulging 
any presumptuous curiosity, nor pretending to be wise be- 
yond what is written for our learning. 

" They who carefully read the Holy Scriptures, cannot 
be ignorant that salvation is of grace ; — that it is not of 
works, lest any man should boast, and that we are justified 
through faith in the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. 
Nor is it less evident that we are required to ivork out our 
salvation, — to save ourselves, — to make our calling and 
election sure. These, and other like passages, all apper- 
tain to the sure Word of God, and that is their true sense 
which reconciles them, and shows their agreement with 
each other, and with the whole of the sacred volume. 

" In searching the Scriptures, our great desire should be 
to know what God has taught, uninfluenced by w^hat we 
may prefer, and without any attempt to circumscribe ' the 
power of God and the wisdom of God ' within the narrow 
limits of our own understanding. If we search the Scrip- 
tures for texts or for arguments to confirm what appears to 
us the viost reasonable, or what we have already adopted 
as our opinions, we shall be less likely to come to the 
knowledge of ' all the counsel of God.' Sincere and pious 
Christians, by regarding chiefly, (what certainly merits very 
much regard) the gratuitous dispensations of God's mercy 
in Christ,— the hopeless, spiritual state of fallen man, — the 
predominance of his selfish, worldly, and carnal affections, 
■ — and many passages of God's word, which speak of our 
works as unprofitable to God, and in his sight without merit, 



THE PASTORAL LETTER. 359 

may naturally be led to make too little account of good liv- 
ing, and of what we must do to be saved. A simple belief 
in the merits of Christ may be so relied upon, as to ' make 
void the law through faith.' * * * It appears that St. 
Paul's remarks on the doctrines of grace, were misunder- 
stood in his day, as they also have been in ours. They 
were considered, St. Peter says, as hard to be understood, 
and were wrested from their true sense to the support of 
error. We have also reason to believe that others of the 
apostles, as St. Peter and St. James, St. John and St. Jude, 
designed, in their epistles, to rectify the erroneous notions 
which some Christians even then began to entertain respect- 
ing the necessity of godly living ; ' to vindicate, (as St. 
Augustine says,) the true doctrine from the false conse- 
quences charged upon it, and to shew that faith without 
works is nothing worth.' St. James, in his bold manner 
and strong language, speaks very decidedly on this point ; 
— he shews the dangerous error of supposing that a mere 
belief in Christ rendered the works, which God's word re- 
quires of believers, unnecessary, or that we can have a good 
hope of being saved in Christ, while we neglect what 
Christ himself commands. 

" Faith is required not as a siihstitute for good living, 
but rather as necessary to our living according to the word 
and will of God. The works which the gospel of Christ re- 
quires, that men may be saved, they cannot, or certainly 
they would not perform without a belief in him as their 
Saviour. Who could truly pray in the name of Christ ; or 
in his name, and from love to him, give a cup of water, if 
he does not believe in him ? Who could truly pray in the 
name of Christ, or in his name, and from love to him, give a 
cup of water, if he does not believe in him 1 St. James 
teaches what St. Paul taught, that we do not through faith 
make void the law. The unprofitableness of faith without 



360 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

submission to God's righteousness, he illustrates by the case 
of one who should give the needy nothing but fair words 
and empty wishes ; ' Be ye warmed and clothed.' There 
is no more of true justifying faith, in believing the Scrip- 
tures to be the Word of God, while we live in the neglect 
of what they teach, than there is of charity in knowing the 
wants of the poor, while we refuse or neglect to relieve 
them. St. James teaches us that the faith which justifies, 
is a living faith, fruitful of good works : it is that faith of 
the heart, by which ' man believeth unto righteousness.' 
St. Paul teaches the same doctrine when he says, ' Though 
I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and 
have not charity, I am nothing.' And again, ' If ye live 
according to the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye, through the 
Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' Our 
Saviour teaches this doctrine when he says, ' Not every one 
that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 
of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father.' And 
St. Peter says to the same purpose, ' It is better not to know 
the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn 
from the holy commandment.' He shews the necessity of 
adding to our faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, 
godliness, brotherly-kindness, charity ' If — he says, ye do 
these things, ye shall never fall.' 

"A careful study of the holy Scriptures, with prayer, 
will convince you of their perfect harmony and agreement 
on the doctrine of faith and works. You have but to ob- 
serve well in ivhat sense we are justified by faith only ; 
and also how it is that good living is essential to our salva- 
tion in Christ. By the apostles St. Paul and St. James, you 
are warned of two opposite errors. By the former you are 
taught not to rely on any works which you do, as profita- 
ble to salvation, but, such as are wrought in a Christian 
faith ; while the other shows that faith, without the works 



THE PASTORAL LETTER. 361 

which the gospel requires is unavailing. This doctrine he 
had learned from his Divine Master, who was careful to 
teach that the tree is knoion by its fruits ; that the man 
whose heart is truly renewed by a lively faith in Christ, 
will shew it by his submission to God's righteousness ; ' will 
shew his faith by his works.' * * * This doctrine of 
faith and works you may find to be fully taught and sus- 
tained in the Articles and Liturgy, and in all the standards 
of our Church. She has taken the triie mean or middle 
way between the two opposite extremes, and is careful to 
teach you not to turn to the right hand or to the left. * * * 

" This subject rightly considered will teach you profita- 
bly to use the means of grace. Because circumcision 
now avails nothing you must not infer that the Christian 
ordinances are of but little importance — that loithoiit peril 
to your soul you may neglect Baptism, or Confirmation, or 
the Lord's Supper, or Prayer. By a right use of these 
means, as our Church teaches, and the Scriptures teach, 
your faith will be strengthened and grace increased. God 
has commanded the use of them, and they who neglect them 
must either think that they are wiser than God, or they 
must be in want of tJiat faith which produces obedience to 
his commands. 

The ordinances appointed by our Saviour Christ and 
administered by his apostles, should not be viewed merely 
as duties, but rather as blessed privileges which claim our 
thankfulness to God. In mercy to mankind and to help 
our infirmities they are given us as sanctified means of 
bringing us to himself and by ivhich we may obtain liis 
heavenly benediction. 

" Your bishops ask your attention to this subject the 
rather, because, in our visitation of the Churches under our 
care, we are often and much pained in observing how large 
a part of the people of our congregations appear to be in 



362 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

doubt, or undecided respecting the use of these means ; how 
many of them hve in the neglect of making an open and 
pubhc profession of their faith in Christ and submission to 
his righteousness ; and this we the more regret, from con- 
sidering that not a few of them manifest a sincere regard 
for rehgion and a serious sense of its importance. Their 
morals, too, and their hves in other respects, are, in a happy 
degree, such as we desire to see in the disciples of Christ. 
They appeared to have a reverence for God and right views 
of the Saviour's character and office ; and they shew such 
benevolence and charity towards their fellow men, that we 
may say of thousands what Christ said to one, " TlicTf are 
not far from the kingdom of God." Our sorrow is that 
they are not visibly in his Kingdom. For reasons known 
perhaps to themselves and to God only, they do not confess 
Christ before men and become members of his Church. 
While they so continue they are not assured of God's fa- 
vour and goodness towards them, " and that they are mem- 
bers incorporate in the mystical bod}^ of his Son, which is 
the blessed company of all faithful people." Into a Church 
so apostolic as this, having a faith so primitive, doctrines so 
evangelical, a worship so scriptural, and other institutions 
so truly liberal, we might reasonably hope to see people 
crowding as doves to their windows. 

"Our Saviour Christ sent his ministers to preach, 'He 
that belicveth and is baptized, sliall be saved ;' and so far 
as w^e know of their acts and their history, they who did be- 
lieve immediateli/ made that profession of their faith. It 
is also evident in the Acts of the Apostles that they con- 
firmed baptized believers by laying their hands upon them, 
and praying for the aid of God's Holy Spirit to strengthen 
them in the performance of their baptismal engagements, 
and enable them to ' lead the rest of their lives according to 
that beginning.' And it is the request and the command 



THE PASTORAL LETTER. 363 

of your Saviour that you receive the other sacrament in re- 
membrance of him, in a thankful and devout commemora- 
tion of his ' one sacrifice for sin.' In tliat sacrament you 
shew forth his death — you manifest your faith in the mer- 
its of his cross, and your thankfuhiess for such unspeaka- 
ble mercy. By faithfully receiving these memorials of his 
love, you are also authorized to hope for the strengthening 
of your souls by the spiritual efficacy of his body and blood, 
broken and shed for your sins, as your bodies are by the 
bread and wine. 

" Some seem to think that the rivers of Damascus are 
better than the waters of Israel, or that if they live honest 
and good lives they shall not be the worse for neglecting 
religious ceremonies. And who does truly live an honest 
and good life 7 Who loves God with all his heart and soul 
and mind, and his neighbour as himself? Who has in all 
things done to others as he would have others do to him 7 
In many things we all offend : there is none good but one. 
Christ died to save, and his gospel is sent to call ' not the 
righteous but sinners.' Are you so whole, that you need 
not this Divine Physician ? We might remind you of the 
inestimable benefits, visibly signed and sealed in Baptism 
to those who rightly receive it. We might say much to 
you of the fitness and Divine authority of Confirmation, and 
the blessings which have evident!]/ attended its right and 
faithful ministration. We might shew that commu- 
ning in the Lord's Supper is a great comfort to those who 
believe in Christ, and that it strengthens them much in 
their Christian zeal. — But is it not enough to know that 
it is the will of your Saviour Christ that you should submit 
to his ordinances ? — that he, who so loved your soul as to 
die for its salvation, has appointed his sacraments for your 
benefit ? Such a Saviour, you may well believe, has not 
ordained rites which are unnecessary, or which may safely 



364 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

be neglected ; nor has he required you to do that which is 
useless. Our wisdom, when opposed to God's word, is but 
foolishness ! He has ' chosen the foolish things of the 
world to confound the mighty.' When some inquired of 
Christ, ' What shall we do that we might work the works 
of God ; he answered and said unto them. This is the 
work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.' 
We are to believe in him as the great Prophet — as the 
word or wisdom of God, by whom the Divine will is made 
known to men ; and as the only true Priest who has made 
expiation for our sins, and ever lives to make intercession 
for us. ' Through him we have access, by one Spirit, unto 
the Father.' And we are to believe in him as our King, 
unto whom all power was given in heaven and earth. Him 
we are bound in all things to obey. He is ' made both 
Lord and Christ ;' and well may he ask, as he does. ' Why 
call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say V 
While we disobey his commands, by our actions we deny 
that he is Lord ; we rebel against him. * * * "VV^e ' be- 
seech you then, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation.' 
Consider well what you must do to be saved ; — how great 
is the peril of halting between two opinions, and of neglect- 
ing this great salvation. We would be ever cautious not 
to encourage an undue reliance on religious rites ; but with- 
out the use of those which God has graciously appointed for 
our use, how can we hope to increase in grace and in god- 
liness of living ? ' Except a man be born of Water and of 
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' We 
know well that you cannot change yovir own hearts ; — that 
God alone can renew a right spirit within you. But he 
has promised to bless your sincere efforts to know and to 
do his will. ' Ask and you shall receive ; seek and you 
shall find.' While you are faithful to do what he com- 
mands, you may humbly hope that he will enlighten your 



THE PASTORAL LETTER. 365 

mind, and sanctify your affections. To him that hath shall 
be given. To those who ' order their conversation right, 
shall be shewn the salvation of God.' 

"The Kingdom of God, or his Church, is the spiritual 
ARK, which Christ, the true Noah, has prepared for the sav- 
ing of his house ; and your safety requires that you be not 
only 'not far from,' but in it. The promise of salvation is 
to those who are within its pale. The sense in which, as 
St. Peter says, ' Baptism now saves us,' is, its being ordained 
of Christ, as the entrance into this spiritual ark, where we 
are entitled to all the means of grace, and, if we are faith- 
ful in the use of them, to all the promises to those who are 
' members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the 
kingdom of Heaven." As our Church teaches, — ' They that 
receive baptism rightly, are grafted into the Church, and 
the promises of forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be 
the sons of God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and 
sealed.^ We should use this and the other Christian ordi- 
nances as a manifestation of our faith in Christ, of our trust 
in his merits, of our hope in the promises of God, and of 
our submission to his righteousness. In the right use of 
them there is great comfort ; for they are tokens of his love 
of our souls, and of what he has done to save them. 
They are sanctified means, of God's appointment, whereby 
we may draw nigh to him in full assurance of faith, and 
obtain his heavenly benediction. Where these ordinances 
are devoutly and faithfully observed, we may well hope 
that true religion is increasing. It is encouraging to all 
who love the gates of Zion to see multitudes thus openly 
confessing the name of Christ ; coming to Baptism, and 
bringing their children ; renewing in Confirmation their 
Christian covenant, and regularly communing in the Lord's 
Supper. ' For with the heart man believeth unto right- 



36G ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

eousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto sal- 
vation.' 

This paper is signed by the presiding bishop on behalf of 
the whole episcopal bench. 

St. Paul's chapel, in which this Convention was held, is 
(since the removal of old Trinity) the oldest church edifice 
in the City of New York. It was erected by the vestry of 
Trinity parish (to which it is attached) anterior to the Rev- 
olutionary war, and was first opened for divine service in 
1766, the clergy on the parish then being, Dr. Samuel 
Auchmuty, rector ; and Mr. Charles Inglis, A. M. (now 
Bishop of Nova Scotia,) and Dr. John Ogilvie assistant 
ministers. " It is," writes Mr. Henry M. Onderdonk, in his 
History of the New York parishes, and church edifices, " a 
very imposing, spacious, and handsome edifice, constructed 
of grey stone, principally of the Corinthian order of architec- 
ture, and is one of the richest ornaments of our city. Its 
foundations were commenced in 1761, and when completed 
in 1766, its interior arrangements differed somewhat from 
the present, and a small and ill-proportioned dome occupied 
the place of the steeple, which now adds so much to the 
harmony and beauty of the view. The walls are thick and 
massive, and form a parallelogram. On the front facing 
Broadway, a portico composed of four columns of the Ro- 
man Ionic style, supporting a well proportioned pediment, 
extends from the building to the depth of eighteen feet and 
a half, which, with the tower projection of seven feet and 
six inches, and the addition of the tower-portico of thirteen 
feet, make the extreme length of the edifice out to out, one- 
hundred and fifty-one feet. The pediment which rests 
upon the columns above mentioned, is ornamented by 
handsome projecting cornices, and by two circular windows, 
with a niche midway between them, containing a richly 
carved colossal figure of St. Paul, leaning on a sword. Be- 



ST. Paul's church. 367 

neath the pediment a largo altar window of three compart- 
ments, the centre of which runs in an arch, and is separ- 
ated from its lattcrals by two Ionic pilasters, gives light to 
the chancel, and is the most striking feature of the east 
front. In the middle of this window, a monument sculp- 
tured in basso-relievo, erected to the memory of Major 
General R. Montgomery, bears an appropriate inscription. 
With the exception of the pediment, and portico, but little 
or no ornament decorates the main body of the church. 
The sides are perfectly plain, being constructed of dark 
grey stone, without buttresses, or any other projection, ex- 
cept the sills and architraves of the windows, and a contin- 
uous line of brown stone between the first and second 
stories. The windows number fourteen on a side, and are 
arranged in two tiers of seven each, the lower ones light- 
ing the aisles, and the upper ones the galleries. A balus- 
trade divided every ten feet by a pedestal, supporting an 
urn, extends along the roof, above the side walls, from the 
western extremity of the structure, to the front of the pedi- 
ment. The tower rises to the height of one hundred feet, 
and is built of stone, similar to that used for the rest of 
the building. It is divided, above the roof, into two sec- 
tions, the lower one, with the exception of rusticated cor- 
ners, being perfectly plain, and the upper one, having antse, 
or pilasters on the angles, and two Ionic columns in the 
centre, supporting a small pediment, over which, between 
two inverted consoles, is the dial of the clock. The steeple 
rises from the tower to the top of the vane, one hundred 
and three feet, making it, in connection with the tower, two 
hundred and three feet from the ground. This steeple, 
which is not surpassed for beauty of appearance, and fine 
proportions by any in the city, or even in the country, was 
erected subsequently to the Revolution, and many years 
after the completion of the remainder of the edifice. As be- 



368 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

fore stated, it occupies the place of a small and ill-shaped 
dome, in former times a covering for the tower, and, with 
the exception of the section containing the clock, is mod- 
elled [like many other parts of the building] after the steeple 
of St. Martin's church, Trafalgar-square, London. 

" The interior of St. Paul's for general effect, and happy 
harmony, will yield to that of no other church in the city 
of New-York, excepting Trinity. In entering the edifice a 
richness of appearance first strikes the eye, which, combined 
with a deep and all-pervading solemnity, peculiar to St. 
Paul's, brings to the mind, mingled feelings of pleasure, and 
veneration ; and though one may dwell with delight upon 
the handiwork of the skilful architect, he cannot divest him- 
self of the forcible impression, that it is at the same time, 
the house of God. A double range of columns, in the rich- 
est style of the Roman Corinthian order, runs the whole 
length of the church, supporting the galleries, and the ceil- 
ing of the nave. The capitals of the columns are richly 
and elaborately carved, after the usual pattern of the order 
to which they belong, and may be considered as handsome 
specimens of workmanship. 

" The nave is well-proportioned, being thirty-nine feet in 
width, ninety-two feet in length, and sixty feet in height. 
The ceiling above it, consists of a simple arch sprung from 
the entablatures of the columns on either side. From the 
centres of the circular panels upon the crown are suspended 
three large and elegant cut glass chandeliers. In the ceil- 
ings over the galleries arches spring from the entablature 
of one column to that of another, and to a corresponding 
entablature, supported by a very rich console, on the side 
walls of the chapel. This arrangement of arching, 
makes a groined ceiling of regular sections, from the cen- 
tres of which hang from foliated bosses cut glass chande- 
liers. 



ST. Paul's church. 369 

" The chancel is situated in a recess, fifteen feet deep, 
separated from the nave by a large arch thrown across the 
body of the church, from the entablatures of two Ionic pi- 
lasters against the inner wall of the eastern vestibules. It 
is raised one foot and six inches above the ground floor, and 
is enclosed by a richly carved railing extending between 
the walls, which are twenty-nine feet apart. The altar, 
standing directly under the great altar window, is of wood 
handsomely painted in imitation of stone, and above it, in 
the centre compartment of the window, now curtained with 
heavy drapery, are the two tablets of the law, in letters of 
gold, surmounted by rays of light, proceeding from a repre- 
sentation of the visible manifestation of the Deity on Mount 
Sinai. The walls on either side of the chancel are per- 
fectly plain, with the exception of six mural monuments of 
chaste sculpture, erected at different times." 

The first of these monuments, mentioned by Mr. Onder- 
donk, bears the arms of Eleanor Huggett, and contains a 
Latin inscription. Next to this, another, also bearing an 
heraldic device wrought upon an urn of white marble, 
standing out from a back ground of veined Italian marble 
in the form of a pyramid, is inscribed a tribute to the mem- 
ory of Mrs. Franklin, wife of the British governor of New 
Jersey, who died at the commencement of the revolutionary 
war. On the opposite side of the chancel, is a cenotaph in 
memory of Sir John Temple, containing his arms, and the 
motto 'Templa Quam Dilecta.' Sir John was the first 
consul general sent by Great Britain to the United States, 
after the war of independence. He died at New York in 
1798, aged 67. The next monument contains the follow- 
ing inscription : — 

24 



370 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

WITHIN THIS CHANCEL 

IN CERTAIN HOPE OF A RESURRECTION TO GLORY 

THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, 

ARE DEPOSITED THE REMAINS OF 

MARGARET, 

THE WIFE OF 

CHARLES INGLIS, D. D. 

FORMERLY RECTOR OF TRINITY PARISH IN THIS CITY. 

SHE DIED THE 21ST SEPTEMBER, 1783, 

AGED THIRTY-FIVE YEARS. 

NEAR HER IS INTERRED ALL THAT WAS MORTAL, OF 

CHARLES, 

ELDEST SON OF THE SAID MARGARET AND CHARLES INGLIS, 

"WHO, ALAS ! AT AN EARLY PERIOD WAS SNATCHED AWAY 

JANUARY THE 20tH, 1782 

IN THE EIGHTH YEAR OF HIS AGE. 

THE HUSBAND AND THE FATHER, 

SINCE BECOME BISHOP OF NOVA SCOTIA, 

AS TESTIMONY OF TENDEREST AFFECTION 

TO A DEAR AND WORTHY WIFE 

AND ESTEEM FOR A DEVOUT CHRISTIAN ; 

AND THE FONDEST REGARD 

FOR AN AMIABLE SON, 

WHO, ALTHOUGH IN AGE A CHILD, 

WAS YET IN UNDERSTANDING A MAN, 

IN PIETY, A SAINT, 

AND IN DISPOSITION AN ANGEL, 

CAUSED THIS MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED 

IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD, 1788. 

There are two other monuments in the chancel, one to 
the memory of colonel Thomas Barclay, son of the Rev. 
Henry Barclay, formerly rector of Trinity parish, and the 
other to Anthony Van Dam, Esq., grandson of the Honour- 
able Rip Van Dam. Upon the wall, near the southern ves- 
tibule door, is a plain marble tablet to Thomas Barrow, and 



ST. Paul's church. 371 

his wife Sarah, which, with another in the gallery to Chris- 
tiana, wife of George W. Chapman, complete the whole 
number contained in the church. 

The ground floor of St. Paul's is divided into four parts, 
by three aisles paved with tesselated marble, and is pewed 
throughout ; the pews painted in imitation of mahogany. 
I may here remark that the pews in all American churches 
are most properly made much lower than in ours. The 
ridiculous height of the straight-backed boxes called pews 
(more properly pens) in the English churches where these 
"protestant" nuisances are retained, would only be endura- 
ble if the evil did not promise, in the case of nearly every 
new erection, to be perpetuated. In this single respect we 
may copy very advantageously from America. 

The reading desk and pulpit face the centre aisle, which 
branches off to allow a free passage around them, being 
several feet in advance of the chancel ; and, like similar 
deformities in English churches of the same " orthodox" 
age, afford a picturesque protestant screen to the altar. A 
portion of the west-end gallery forms the organ loft, and 
contains a fine toned organ built in England nearly fifty 
years ago. Above it are two smaller galleries, separated 
by the organ, for the accommodation of the Sunday-schol- 
ars. Behind the organ, a door opens into the second sec- 
tion of the tower, whence stairs ascend into the steeple ; 
which with the tower, is two hundred and three feet high. 
This steeple has withstood many a severe gale, and has 
twice been struck with lightning, each time the electric 
fluid passing off by the lightning rod, doing no further dam- 
age, than defacing one of the dials of the clock. The 
church seats about a thousand persons. 

St. Paul's church-yard occupies the whole " square" 
bounded by Broadway, Vesey, Church and Fulton streets. 
A square in America, I may just remark, means the space 



372 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ordinarily occupied by a block of buildings. Thus persons 
occupying houses fronting on a garden enclosure like Bel- 
grave, Berkeley, &-c., are described as living oji or fronting' 
such or such a square. This interesting cemetery is en- 
closed on three sides by an iron railing, and on the fourth 
by a high brick wall, with entrances, of a very unpretend- 
ing character, from each street. Amongst the monuments 
and tombstones, which are very numerous, the most beau- 
tiful in design and workmanship is that of Thomas Addis 
Emmet. It is a white marble monolithe of thirty feet ele- 
vation, and has upon the face fronting Broadway, a bust 
of " the patriot" sculptured in basso-relievo. It is inscribed 
on three sides in three different languages. The English 
inscription was written by the Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck 
of New York ; the 1 jatin inscription by Dr. John Duer, and 
the inscription in the Irish language, by the late Dr. Eng- 
land, the Romish " Bishop of Charleston," South Carolina. 
There is also a monument of chaste proportions to the 
memory of the French General Rochefontain, who fought 
in the Republican army in the War of Independence. 

The English reader cannot but be interested in even 
these minute particulars, relative to a spot of such historical 
as well as sacred interest as St. Paul's. May the day be 
not far distant when our Trans- Atlantic brother catholics 
of New York will fulfil their long cherished expectations of 
rearing a cathedral church in the centre of their fair city, 
whose ample proportions rivalling those of St. Paul's on 
Ludgate Hill, shall form the distinguishing ornament of the 
great commercial metropolis of the New World. This 
magnificent design, the great wealth of Trinity corporation 
and the known liberality of New York churchmen, renders 
by no means improbable. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

JOURNEY TO MICHIGAN. — ROCHESTER. — LAKE ERIE. 

As, since the date of the last chapter, I spent a short time 
in Michigan, the reader may, perhaps, wish to be conducted 
into that new and rising state. 

We took the same course in reaching Utica, four hun- 
dred miles of our journey, as when I accompanied Miss 
Waylen to Niagara. Here we entered a canal boat, and 
followed the Erie canal to Rochester, ninety-eight miles fur- 
ther, where we spent a Sunday. Rochester is the great 
northern metropolis of the state, and one of the best built 
cities in the country, standing on both sides the Genessee 
river, not far from its northern outlet in Lake Ontario ; and 
with a water power equal to two thousand streams of 
twenty horse power, in the midst of the finest wheat grow- 
ing country in America, it has everything to make it a great 
and wealthy city. Yet it seems scarcely credible to the 
stranger who walks its beautiful streets, teeming with a 
busy population, that in 1820 the same spot was a poor vil- 
lage of fifteen hundred inhabitants ! — there are now twenty 
thousand ! ! 

The Genessee Falls at this place are two hundred and sev- 
enty-three feet in height. The view of these falls and the 
city in the background is beautiful in the extreme. We 
walked for a mile above the principal point of view by the 
river side, amidst scenery which, had we time, would have 
tempted us much farther. 



374 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Trinity church is a fine Enghsh looking edifice near the 
courts of law and the other county offices. Dr. Whitehouse, 
the present rector of this parish, has held it, I beUeve, for 
many years, and enjoys a good reputation for his pastoral 
diligence and popular manners. We heard him officiate 
at the altar, but were disappointed in our expectations of 
seeing him in the pulpit, which was filled by another. 

Grace church, the other catholic place of worship, was at 
the time of my visit closed. The rector of the parish was 
a former friend, and fellow deacon in Rhode Island, and I 
had anticipated much pleasure in meeting him amongst his 
parishioners. A letter written with his usual frankness and 
hospitality had in part induced me to take Rochester in my 
route. An appeal to " old associations" as forming an in- 
ducement to visit Rochester was sufficiently irresistible. 
" This" the letter added " is a country well worth visiting — 
a city which has a population of 21,000 ; planted and groicn 
too within thirty years ! I do assure you a visit will afford 
me the greatest pleasure imaginable, and you must hold 
forth in my cathedral church ; — so don't say me nay, at 
yo2ir personal peril ; come if you would retain my friend- 
ship — we all, male and female, say comeP 

Who could " say nay" to such a warm and brotherly in- 
vitation ? — but what was my disappointment on reaching 
Rochester to find that the " cathedral church" was closed, 
and my good friend retired from the city in consequence of 
difficulties with his parishioners. 

The worthy rector of Grace church was open handed 
and generous to a fault ; and having a private fortune 
of his own independent of his parish income, a design- 
ing female in his congregation, who had fallen an easy 
prey to a needy profligate, temporarily residing in the city, 
charged her minister with her seduction, and the jury, on 
the most slender circumstantial evidence — fully disproved 



ROCHESTER CHURCH TROUBLES. 375 

by the statements of a brother clergyman, and other wit- 
nesses of high character — mulcted him in heavy damages. 
An ecclesiastical court, held by the bishop of the diocess, 
pronounced Mr. V — n Z — t " not guilty," and a short time 
after the plaintiff had pocketed her 3000 dollars, facts came 
out in reference to the case which fastened the act on the 
true party, and re-established Mr. V — n Z— t in the confi- 
dence and good opinion of the public. 

But what an agony of mental suffering must the affair, 
in its whole progress, have occasioned the persecuted party ! 
Besides his heavy pecuniary loss, (which was the smallest 
ingredient in his cup of suffering,) how must the distrust and 
desertion of his flock, and the odium of a credulous public, 
joined to the circumstances of a protracted trial in an open 
court, have gone like iron to the soul of a man more than 
ordinarily sensitive, and acutely alive to good or bad treat- 
ment ! I classed it as another proof that the generous and 
the unsuspicious in the Christian community are the most 
open to the attacks of interest or malice. 

The " cathedral church," as Mr. V — n Z — t was pleased to 
style Grace church, answers very well to such appellation in 
the appearance of some parts of the interior of the edifice, 
which displays a variety of decoration in carved oak ; " but 
we must cease to think," judiciously remarks a writer in the 
Canadian Church,* " that retiring aisles, and oaken stalls 
make a cathedral. The church that contains exclusively 
the cathedra (chair) of a bishop is a cathedral church, just 
as much as that part of the church that contains the bells 
is the belfry.''^ This is the truth, and happily being under- 
stood in the British colonies. The popular error that a 
building of certain proportions, with a dean and a chapter 
of canons, is essential to constitute a cathedral church, pre- 

* "The Church," a weekly ecclesiastical journal of great ability, published 
at Toronto. 



376 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

vails, however, pretty generally in the United States ; though 
the churches belonging to the American bishops have, in 
fact, more the character of the early Christian cathedrals 
than the spacious minsters of England ; and are each of 
them as much " the eye of the diocess." 

We took the canal boat for Buffalo, which place we 
reached in twenty-four hours, having been conducted by or 
through Ogden, Brockport, Albion, Medina, liOckport, Pen- 
dleton and Tonnowanto. This canal, in its whole length 
from Albany to Buffalo, is three hundred and sixty-five 
miles, and was six years in progress ; it was completed 
in 1825. 

At Buffalo we took passage in a steam-boat bound for 
Detroit, which we were three days in reaching, owing to 
stress of weather. We stopped at Dunkirk, Erie, Cleveland 
and Sandusky, on the Pennsylvania and Ohio shores. Erie 
was formerly a French settlement called Presgue ; the old 
French fortifications still remain. Cleveland is a well built 
city, situated on a flat promontory standing ovit to the lake, 
the views of which are uncommonly fine. Trinity church 
was the only place of worship then existing in Cleveland. 
Another church has been since erected. Sandusky is unat- 
tractive enough. When we left this place the evening was 
far advanced, and I lost, on this occasion, the many beau- 
ties which the approach to Detroit, the capital of Michigan, 
presents. 



CHAPTER LV. 

DETROIT. — BISHOP m'cOSKRY.^ — NATURAL FEATURES AND 
HISTORY OP MICHIGAN. 

On getting out of my berth the next morning (which was 
Sunday) I found the boat closely moored to the wharf at 
Detroit, and nearly deserted of its passengers. We had 
received an invitation to the bishop's house, where we found 
a friendly and cordial w^elcome. Never did the service of 
the Church appear more heavenly than on that Sabbath 
morning, in the beautiful cathedral of Detroit. It was con- 
ducted by the bishop's assistant, the Rev. Chauncey W. 
Fitch, and the sermon delivered by the bishop. The latter 
was adapted to the occasion of the sacrament, which was 
afterwards administered to several hundred communicants. 
In the evening I occupied the pulpit myself. 

During my stay in Michigan I had numerous opportuni- 
ties of observing the truth of another testimony to Bishop 
M'Coskry's nniversal popularity. " One could hardly de- 
sire," writes Dr. Clark, "a larger measure of popularity, 
either with his parish or in his diocess, than Bishop M'Coskry 
enjoys. Everywhere the highest testimony is borne to the 
loveliness and excellency of his character, and the faithful- 
ness and evangelical spirit of his ministry. This I heard 
from all quarters — from clergy and laity. Indeed, I think 
the bishop's greatest danger lies in this quarter."* 

Detroit is also the seat of a schismatical Romanist bishop, 

* Gleanings by the Way. 



378 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

who has a cathedral church of the most singular proportions 
and general appearance I have ever seen. The present 
occupant of the assumed see was described to me by the 
Bishop of Michigan, who lives on the best of terms with 
him, as a very excellent, liberal minded man, and a good 
public speaker. 

It is a neatly built city, with some handsome public build- 
ings, and a noble main thoroughfare, called Jefferson Ave- 
nue, which is thronged on a fine day with carriages and 
light vehicles. A regiment of the regular troops was quar- 
tering in the town on our arrival, which added considerably 
to its liveliness and gaiety. 

After a week spent under the bishop's hospitable roof, 
we pursued our way as far as Jackson, eighty miles west- 
ward. This was the westernmost termination of our jour- 
ney, and just a thousand miles, by the route we had taken, 
from Philadelphia. 

The soil of Michigan is alluvial ; and, except on the west 
coast, free of rocks. There are also few large forests like 
the other western states, and the climate in winter is, owing 
to its peninsular form, milder than it is to be found at sev- 
eral degrees south. Its general character is undulating, 
gentle mounds constantly rising on every side with groups 
of trees, presenting what are called " oak openings." This 
appearance is exceedingly pleasing to English eyes, re- 
sembling as they do the cultivated parks of the nobility and 
gentry. I have travelled through many miles of wild lands 
on horseback, every foot of which bore this appearance of 
culture, and every tree looking as if it was planted by the 
hand of taste. Such a country requires comparatively 
little capital to render it fit for the farmer's crops, and is, 
unquestionably, the best for the settler of small means. 
The land in these oak openings yields heavy crops of wheat 
and barley. Clearing is generally unnecessary at first, as 



MICHIGAN. 379 

by girdling the trees they immediately decay, and, having 
no foliage, present little obstruction to the effect of the sun's 
rays on the ground. In this neighbourhood the average 
quantity of grain produced is — of Indian corn, sixty bushels 
to the acre ; of oats, forty-five ; and of wheat, twenty-five. 

Another beautiful feature in Michigan is the carpet of 
red, 'yellow, purple, and white flowers, which everywhere 
covers the ground in summer. Add to this, a great number 
of most picturesque lakes, whose banks are clothed with 
verdure, and their waters filled with fish, and it will be 
readily admitted that Michigan is a very pretty country. 
And such it is — Unlike the other western states, every part 
of it, except the newly built towns and villages, looks, but 
for the odious rail fence, like an old well cultivated country. 
That a few years will see it a very wealthy and populous 
state, no one who has visited it, or is acquainted with its re- 
sources and the enterprize and industry of its inhabitants, 
can doubt. 

Michigan has had several masters. It w^as first settled 
by the French in September 1641 ; the shores were visited 
by Jesuit missionaries, several of whom paid the penalty of 
their lives in their efforts to plant the cross among the sav- 
age tribes on the western lake country, and " during the 
following years," writes the historian, " these missionaries 
were employed in strengthening the power of France over 
the possessions which she claimed from Green Bay to the 
head of Lake Superior, and in collecting information respect- 
ing the region extending towards the Mississippi."* De- 
troit was founded in 1791, during the reign of Louis XIV. 
After the great battle of Q,uebec in 1759, it fell, with the 
whole country, into the hands of the British ; though not 
without the most bloody opposition on the part of the Indian 
allies of the French, when Pontiac, a name which fills a 

* Lanman. chap. 2. 



380 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

fearful page in the history of Michigan, achieved wonders 
of skill and daring. In the revolutionary struggle, Michi- 
gan passed over to the republicans, and was recovered back 
by the British during the war of 1814. Perry's victories on 
the lake, however, put General Harrison and himself in 
possession of the peninsula, since which time it has been 
rapidly rising to its present prosperous condition. Its ' his- 
tory in every stage, is, perhaps, more full of striking inci- 
dent than that of any other state in the Union. 

In our journey to Jackson, we stopped several hours at 
Ann Arbour, and slept one night at Lyma. The first is a 
charming town with well built streets, the State University, 
a handsome church, and several meeting houses. The 
Rev. Francis Cuming, whom I afterwards met on more 
than one occasion, was at this time rector of the parish ; he 
has since removed to Grand Rapids in the west of the state. 
He is (next to his diocesan) the most active and energetic 
clergyman in this diocess. 

The first view of Jackson from its eastern approach, is 
one of the most picturesque I have ever gazed upon. Lying 
in a valley marked by the swellings and inequalities of this 
part of the country, crowned with verdure, with the silvery 
current of the Grand River pursuing its serpentine course 
in full view for several miles, there was something in the 
general aspect of the scene, as I several times viewed it 
from the same eminence, which always impressed me in a 
peculiar degree. It is unquestionably one of the best 
situated towns in the state ; and being intended to take 
the place of Detroit as the future seat of the local govern- 
ment, is rapidly increasing in population and wealth. The 
state prison is already erected and a site chosen for the 
Capitol. 

During our stay here we frequently met the principal 
town's-people, who afford a more favourable specimen of 



THE INDIANS. 381 

western society than I was prepared to expect ; indeed, I 
liave never received more agreeable impressions than I 
carried away with me from this pleasant circle. Mr. 
Dwight, an early settler in Michigan, and his excellent lady, 
pressed the warmest hospitalities upon us, and made us 
acquainted with many other families in the neighbourhood. 
This gentleman entertained us with numerous anecdotes 
in his own experience, illustrative of the Indian character. 
The last tribe had been bought out, and sent across Lake 
Michigan about three years previous, and the place that 
then knew them, knows them no more. 

"Ye say they all have passed away, 

That noble race and brave ; 
Their light canoes have vanished 

From oflf the crested wave. 
That, mid the forests where they roamed, 

There rings no hunter's shot ; 
But their 7iame is on your waters 

Ye may not wash it out. 

Yes, where Ontario's billow, 

Like ocean's surge is curl'd. 
Where strong Niagara's thunders wake 

The wonder of the world ; 
Where red Missouri bringeth 

Rich tribute from the west ; 
And Rappahannock sweetly sleeps 

On green Virginia's breast. 

Ye say their cone-like cabins. 

That clustered round the vale, 
Have disappcareil like wither'd leaves, 

Before the autumn gale ; 
But their memory liveth on your hills. 

Their name is on your shore ; 
Your everlasting rivers speak 

Their dialect of yore." 



382 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

By a tabular statement of General Cross, made to the 
United States War Department several years ago, it appears 
that the 

Number of Indians now east of the Missis- 
sippi is - - - - - 49,365 
Number of Indians who have emigrated from 

the east to the west side, - - 51,327 

Number of indigenous tribes, - - 231,806 



Aggregate, 332,498 

It is estimated by Mr. Harris, the " Indian Commissioner," 
that these Indians can bring into the field upwards of sixty- 
six thousand warriors : that is, when emigration is com- 
pleted, and they choose to coalesce. To resist such a coali- 
tion, General Cross thinks a force of 7000 men would be 
necessary on the western frontier, distributed thus : — - 

Fort Snelling, - - - 

Fort Crawford, 

Upper Forks of the Des Moines, 

Fort Leavenworth, 

Fort Gibson, 

Fort Towson, 

The 8 posts of refuge proposed. 

The protection of 4 depots, 

Jefferson barracks, as a corps of reserve, 1500 

Total, 7000 men 

Larger than the whole standing army of the United 
States, rank and file ! 

" So that it remains a question," writes a Philadelphia pam- 
phleteer, " for the able financier, as well as for the able philan- 
tliropist, what is to be done loith these 332,498 Tndimis who 
yet live to claim a place upon earth 7 Is a standing army 
of 7000 men the cheapest as well as the most honourable 



300 1 


men 


300 




400 




1200 




1500 




800 




800 




200 




1500 





THE INDIANS. 383 

way of getting rid of these red men, who pretend to rights, 
and have had a faith in treaties ? From New- York, Ohio, 
Georgia, are all to be driven to coalesce in tlie western 
wilderness ? and are we so bound that we dare not raise a 
voice for a renmant of the mighty fallen ? In these three 
states, as in others, a few have lifted their heads, and have 
adopted the customs and manners of their civilized neigh- 
bours ; many have good houses, barns, cattle, fenced fields, 
yet a drunken chief may sign, to a no less unworthy 
receiver, all another's earthly treasures, save the lives, for 
whom tliese alone were valued. And is there no restitu- 
tion ? Are the Senecas, the Onandaguas, the Creeks, with 
others, to be driven at the point of the bayonet into the 
western wilderness, to coalesce there ? and be driven from 
thence by a standing army of 7000 well equipped fighting 
men ? And for this is it that every male Indian over eigh- 
teen years of age is to be furnished with a blanket and a 
gun ? Forbid it heaven ! Let not the escutcheon of our 
nation be defaced by so foul a blot ! Let the people learn 
that righteousness, or as our forefathers wrote it, ' right- 
wiseness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any 
people.' " 

I greatly enjoyed a ride, while in Jackson, with a gentle- 
man named De Mill, through a portion of the south of the 
state, which took us by a number of those beautiful features 
in nature, the lakes. On the banks of one of these, in 
Lenawee county, my companion (whose acquaintance ex- 
tends to every clergyman and every parish in Michigan) intro- 
duced me to the residence of a missionary priest, employed 
by the American Church Missionary Society, under the 
Bishop of Michigan's direction, to exercise his office amongst 
the scattered members of the Church in the counties of 
Lenawee, Hillsdale, and Southern Washtenaw ; besides 
officiating alternately at three churches, many miles dis- 



384 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

tant from each other. Here was a man of education and 
birth, tlie nephew of an Irish prelate, devoting his whole 
energies to the cause of the Church — travelling, frequently 
in all weathers, from one post of labour to another, himself 
the occupant of a log cabin, ministering to the spiritual 
wants of single families in the depths of the forest, and on 
the solitary prairie. Wherever the sons and daughters of 
the Church were to be found within his wide district was our 
missionary periodically present, to minister to their spiritual 
need, to feed them with the body of their God, and admit 
their offspring to the fold of Christ ; and all this was under- 
taken, and has been for many years prosecuted for love of 
the work alone, as the missionary salary is small, and the 
missionary has sacrificed, together with the comforts and 
luxuries of his British home, no inconsiderable amount of 
money. 

And his labours are shared, and his hands and spirit aie 
strengthened, and his duties are lightened by that graceful 
and accomplished female who receives us, and is spreading 
with her own hands (for she has no domestic) a snow-white 
table-cloth, on which is soon placed a simple, yet excellent 
meal. How sweet is this bread, and how light and whole- 
some these cakes, how well-preserved these fruits, and how 
delicious are these fresh fish, drawn from the lake whose 
waters ripple against the very foot of the well-cultivated 
garden — cultivated by the missionary's own hands. When 
did beauty and grace, set off by enlightened piety, appear 
less beautiful or less graceful in a checked apr'on 7 Such a 
garment our hostess wears ; and she but lately adorned and 
shone amidst a circle of the highest and most distinguished 
in her own country. 

And there are more missionaries like L r in Michi- 
gan ; and a number such throughout other neighbouring 
states. What marvel that catholicity should so increase in 



A MISSIONARY PRIEST. 385 

the West, when its settlers see before them such examples 
of self-denying zeal, and quenchless love for their best 
interests ? 

Let the faithful pioneers of the cross, spending their lives 
in Western America, but persevere in the course which 
experience has proved to be the only successful one — of 
preaching the Gospel in the Church ; carrying out all the 
principles of the Church as she is, without diminution or 
addition, and it is as morally certain that catholicity will 
cover the continent of North America, and the American 
Church episcopal become the greatest light of Christendom 
within a few years, as that the foundation of God standeth 
sure ! Happy day for America, when, from Maine to Texas 
—from the Atlantic to the Pacific — from every city fane, 
from every rural village and solitary hamlet — one altar will 
be raised — one Sacrifice oflTered thereon ; when one voice of 
praise, the united voice of a united Church, will ascend 
(meet offering) in the language of one ritual ; when the 
Apostles' creed will be the creed of the nation, and the 
prayers of the Apostles and their immediate successors, the 
venerable liturgy of the ages, will be the medium of all 
America's supplications. That day shall come if the Church 
is true to her principles. 

25 



CHAPTER LVI. 



35 



"NEW SCHOOL PRESBYTERIANISM. — RETURN TO PHIL- 
ADELPHIA. — BELLEVILLE REVISITED. PATERSON. 

I LEFT Michigan, after a most agreeable sojourn, sooner 
than I expected, being hurried back by family matters. I 
heard the bishop preach several times, both in his own 
church and during a visitation of the diocess, and every 
occasion enhanced my admiration of hiuL When I left the 
state he was in the midst of a controversy with a presbyte- 
rian opponent, who had been pleased to take exceptions at 
some passages in a sermon preached by the bishop at an 
ordination held in Detroit, published at the request of the 
clergy and many of the laity present. Why a sermon 
preached in the bishop's own cathedral, and stating most 
projicrly the views of the Catholic Church and the Prayer 
Book in reference to the solemn act then transacted, should 
give offence to those holding different views, so as to draw 
down on its author the attacks which this printed sermon 
provoked, it is difficult to conceive — except on the presump- 
tion that the "reverend" fulminator of the most malicious 
of those attacks supposed himself to be invested with the 
power and prerogatives of an inquisitor general, whose pecu- 
liar office it is to exercise a censorship on the religious press, 
and to suppress, as far as the laws of the United States 
permit, the free exercise, and quiet enjoyment of private 
judgment. 

The spite and vexation manifested by the American pres- 



"new school" presbyterianism. 387 

byterians at the rapid growth of the Church, exceeds that 
of any other sect. The weakness which their own recent 
divisions into " old " and " new school," — the latter embrac- 
ing several shades of opinion on some of the most vital points 
of doctrine — while it has led several of the ministers of that 
denomination, and a large number of laymen to attach 
themselves to the ranks of episcopacy, seems, at the same 
time, to increase the rancour of lliosc who remain against 
the rival communion. Two specimens, out of a mul- 
titude such, will suffice to exhibit the extent of this feeling 
of opposition. The first is an extract from a letter issued 
by the synod of the "New School Presbyterian Church," in 
Michigan : — 

" We want you, beloved brethren, to beware of Satan's 
devices. Never be satisfied with the mere form of godli- 
ness. Beware w^e beseech you, of that spirit of Antichrist 
which has grown up within these few years to such giant 
strength in a denomination of religious people, which we 
have been accustomed to consider evangelical, but which 
we fear must, hereafter, be treated as fundamentally erro- 
neous. We now refer you in plain English, to the episco- 
pal denomination. We likewise exhort you not to be de- 
ceived with regard to the fatal tendency of those most 
palpable errors which have taken possession of what is 
termed the '• low chnrcJC portion of that mischievous estab- 
lishment. Even tliat portion, in our estimation, has in 
connection with it, no little false theology and exclusive 
sectarianism [! ! !] and Jesuitical proselytism ; together with 
opposition to temperance, and revivals of religion, inter- 
mingled with a dependence on forms and successions ; all 
of which w'e consider highly injurious to the cause of hu- 
man salvation." 

The other is from the New York " Evangelist," an organ 
of the " New School presbyterian Church." The absolute 



388 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

falsehood which marks every statement, and the tolerant 
Christian spirit which characterises the whole extract, are 
too prominent to require any exposure beyond that which 
it bears on its face. Its evident design is to entrap a class 
of readers as ignorant of history as they must be of ecclesias- 
tical and civil polity. Out of such material, we opine, is 
the " new school" sect mainly formed. 

" The Episcopal Church, Anglican and Anglo-American, 
is in many respects very questionably protestaiit at all. 
Among the Reformed Churches she was late in the day, in 
her awkward and ambiguous affiliation ; she never protested 
originally at all herself, but was whirled about by the im- 
perious caprice of her corrupt and tyrannical monarch ; and 
so prudent in acquiescing, if not in taking originally or at 
all her own position, she remained less acting than acted 
upon, and surrendered all her prerogatives, as a Church of 
Christ, to the usurping and monstrous headship of one of 
the vilest beasts of a king, the second Tudor and the eighth 
Henry, who subdued her as a minister of his will and the 
panderer to his lawless gratifications — against the honours 
of his proper wife, and more against the prerogatives of her 
lawful head, the Lord Christ, the only legitimate King of 
his own Church. In her protestant relations she was 
mainly the passive creature of her wicked and hateful king; 
she came late, and very gradually, and as we have said, 
very awkwardly, into the conformity and the confederacy 
of protestant churches. There are several peculiarities to 
be noted, in her original not-half reformed adhesion to the 
protestant cause ; peculiarities in which she was solitary 
and peerless, as well as inconsistent, raw, and ridiculous, 
among the sisters of the protestant world ; peculiarities, like 
those of a felon in the striped uniform of the state prison, 
worn on the Erastian principle of conformity to the will of 



"new school" presbyterianism, 389 

Caesar, that is, of King Henry, the Bhie Beard monster, and 
master, and dictator of her changes. 

" So true is it that the hierarchy of England is old popish ; 
that it was never reformed : that all other changes left its 
popish, clerical compagination unchanged, in every impor- 
tant or characteristic particular ; and that the dark ages, by 
dark and gradual accretions, and by Romish prescriptions 
and conformities, made it what it is, stamped with the image 
of the beast, and then left it unreformed among the glories 
of the glorious Reformation. It is also a known fact that 
many of the clergy conformed at the time, who were avowed 
papists ; and of all orders, from the lofty and the lordly, to 
the starveling curates and pensioners of pampered prelacy. 
They conformed on the Erastian principle ; false, con- 
temptible, and unchristian as it is ! They prudently acqui- 
esced — and saved their places and their purses ; in a way 
of which we shall speak more hereafter. 

" Now, it is another fact that of all the nominal churches 
of the protestant world, England alone retained her misera- 
ble popish hierarchy. All the other churches, insular or con- 
tinental, revolutionized and reformed their order as well as 
their doctrine in a more Christian style. Whether Lutheran 
or Reformed, all the protestants were anti-prelatists [! !] 
They never thought of reforming away the popish doctrine 
and retaining the popish hierarchy. They made a thorough 
purgation. * * * As for bishops of the diocesan mould 
attempting or originating a reform, and consummating it, 
the idea is Utopian ! What history records any such thing ? 
It never happened. Their collective history is the other 
way. They have always been badly conservative in respect 
to reforms. They always hang on the traces of the age, 
oppose all reforms in the main, and magnify antiquity and 
the wisdom of the ancients. They are always, like Bishop 
Bonner, for ' what the Church believes.' They teach us to 



390 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

worship the authority of the fathers, and infaUibihty of their 
oracles of tradition, and their own divine right to do what 
they please— to govern, dictate, and dogmatize to the world. 
* * * They and theirs were all tories in our Revolu- 
tionary war — with few exceptions. They retarded it, prayed 
against it, denounced it, and now acquiesce in it — on the 
Erastian principle probably, or from some policy even more 
selfish. Their whole history shows them anti-reformers, 
an ti- Americans, anti-protestants. It is the genius and spirit 
of their order, to oppose all reforms in Church, and in state ; 
as if innovation were always a crime, and never can be an 
improvement and a virtue ! and as if old error was better 
than eternally older truth ! 

" Let the American people open their eyes to its true char- 
acter. This same prelacy is the foe of man and of God. It 
is essentially un-protestant, and hostile to the simple ration- 
ality and righteousness of our republican institutions. It is 
analogous to the assumed divine right of kings, and other 
arrogant and wicked assumptions of the feudal system. It 
is a shoot from the trunk of the pagan Ceesar, not from 
Jesus Christ." 

Attacks in a precisely similar strain* are weekly made in 

* The hostility of this miserable sect against a liturgy so purely evangelical as 
that of the Anglo and Anglo-American Churches is easily accounted for in the 
peculiar views which they entertain touching the sublime mystery of the atone- 
ment, reaching even to the moral greatness of our Saviour's character. The 
.following genuine paragraph from the same print will sufficiently indicate how 
" New School Presbyterianism" is getting on. Irving's notion relative to the 
peccability of Christ, is not a touch to it ! Yet the sentiments it contains are, I 
can assure the English reader, growing much in vogue in the " protestant" 
ranks in America. Very similar opinions, variously expressed, have been at 
different times put forth by other heresiarchs. 

" What is the example which the sufferings and death of Christ afford ? — an 
example, if unexplained by any other circumstance, the most frightful and dis- 
gusting the world ever saw. If this were Christ's object, he has most miserably 
failed. * * * He never manifested any extraordinary exemplary de- 



"new school" presbyterianism. 391 

this sagacious organ upon the order, the hturgy, and the 
other features of the Church, nor are the other sects back- 
ward in taking up and repeating the oft-refuted charges ; 
justifying the complaint of Dr. Jarvis, which to Enghsh 
readers may otherwise appear an exaggerated representa- 
tion : " Tlie present is a period of rebuke and blasphemy. 
We are assailed on the one hand by the prelates of the 
Roman communion, on the other, by countless numbers 
among the protestant sects. All unite in nothing but in 
animosity towards us ; and that, too, in a country which 
professes to tolerate every shade of religious faith and opinion. 
The protestant sects raise the alarm cry that we are papists, 
either openly or in disguise ; the prelates of the Roman com- 
munion help on the clamour in hopes of profiting by our dis- 
cord, and repelling the more easily our claims as the reformed 
branch of the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church." 

I saw more of Cleveland on our return eastward, as the 
boat stopped there for half a day to receive the Columbus 
mail. It promises to be the most important port on the 
south shore of Lake Erie, and unlike most sea [lake] ports, 
its high state of morals keeps pace with its commercial pros- 
perity. One proof of this was afforded to our view in the 

PORTMENT, * * * his anguish and cries, his bloody sweat in the garden, and 
his pitiful cry on the cross, seem to be entirely unmanly. The desertion of his 
friends, and the cruelty of his enemies, he might have borne with far greater 
composure. Many of his followers, in all ages, have endured much sorer evil 
than he experienced, with far more apparent magnanimity and self possession. 
So far from setting an example of patience and self-possession in the hour of 
suflfering and trial, he might be commended to the example of some of his own 
followers." 

"Can anything" truly remarked a Church journal, commenting on the article 
whence this is extracted, "be conceived more atrocious than such language "? 
We venture to say that the apostate Julian never expressed himself in more ir- 
reverent terms of the adorable Saviour of the world, nor was even Voltaire in 
his infidel ravings, guilty of worse profanation than this." 



392 



ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 



well-ordered and cleanly appearance of the streets adjoining 
the quays, which are wholly free of dram-shops. 

While sitting with a group of passengers on the boat's 
deck, as she left Cleveland behind her, and the proud Erie 
with its numerous sails opened to our view, its south shore, 
as far as the eye could reach, disclosing the cultivated fur- 
rows and broad pastures of a civilized and well-peopled 
region, one of our party repeated the lines of an English 
poet,* whose eye never witnessed what (in the licensed 
hyperbole of poetic language) he so beautifully prefigured : 

On Erie's banks, where tigers t steal along, 
And the dread Indian chants a dismal song — 
Where human fiends on midnight errands walk, 
And bathe in brains the murd'rous tomakawk ; 
There shall the Hocks on thymy pastures stray, 
And shepherds dance at Summer's closing day. 
Each wandering genius of the lowly glen 
Shall start to view the glittering haunts of men ; 
And silent watch on woodland heights around, 
The village curfew as it tolls profound. 

In a few more short years. Lake Superior will cease to 
be navigated by the Indian canoe, and its banks will swarm 
like these with the busy crowds of civilized habitants. 

I made another visit to " the great Falls," on our journey 
homeward, and varied our course by taking the stage to 
Rochester, (where we remained ten days,) and the canal 
thence to Schenectady, near Albany ; so that I have fol- 
lowed the entire course of that celebrated work of art. 

Before reaching our Philadelphia friends, we made a 
fortnight's visit in New Jersey ; where I witnessed the con- 
secration of the church at Belleville, which had been com- 
pleted chiefly, through the liberality of Mr. Stuyvesant, 

* Campbell. 

t The tiger is not a native of North America, though the wild cat belongs 
to the same genus, and possesses equal ferocity. 



PATTERSON. 393 

who, as is his wont, afterwards entertained the attending 
clergy, numbering on this occasion sixteen or eighteen, at 
his house. Among the company were Drs. Eastburn, 
Wainwright, Milnor, and Anthon, of New York. The 
latter is the Greek professor at Columbia College, and au- 
thor or editor of nearly all the grammars, lexicons, and 
classical school books used in the United States. His man- 
ners and conversation are quiet and prepossessing 

I also took a day to visit Patterson, the seat of some 
considerable manufactories, and the beautiful Falls of the 
Passaic. Here I met with a friend of former years in the 
person of the Rev. Alfred Loutrel, the son of Mr. Loutrel 
before-mentioned, who was supplying the parish of St. 
Paul, of which he has since been instituted rector. The 
congregation of this church is large and public-spirited. 

Mr. W e, a vestryman, at whose house I stayed, is a 

strong advocate of the free-sitting system, which it is my 
fervent prayer his influence may prove effectual in intro- 
ducing in the parish church. — " We should then," said Mr. 
W. " have to erect another place pretty soon, as there 
would not be church room for the influx which the primi- 
tive mode would create." 

" But where would the money come from for that pur- 
pose ?" 

" The money," replied my host, the colour mounting to 
his cheek — " It is this selfish pew-system which closes up 
the hearts, and tightens the purse-strings of churchmen. 
Our laity are rich enough to give church-room to every 
episcopal family in the United States, and a good support to 
every minister, without feeling it. But they never will, under 
the present system. There is money enough in the church, 
and it will flow into its proper channel if we only come 
back to Christian principles." 



394 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

I was reminded of the late Earl of A.ylesford's remark 
"that, as we cannot fix our places in the next world, we 
ought not to attempt to fix them in our churches in this 
world, and that if the poorest man in the village sat side 
by side with him, he would be satisfied." 

Patterson has, at least, one Earl of Aylesford. 



CHAPTER LVII. 

PHILADELPHIAN SUBURBS. 

" Laudabunt alii claram Rhodon aut Mitylenen, 

Aut Epiiesuin, bimarisve Corintlii 
Maenia, vel Baccho Thebas, vel Apolline, Delphos 

Insignes, aut Thessala Tempe. 
* * * * 

Me nee tam patiens Lacedamon, 

Nee tam Larissae percussit campus opimse, 
Q.uam domus Albunese resonantis, 

Et prasceps Anio, et Tiburni lucus; et uda 
Mobilibus pomaria rivis. — Hor. Carmen, VII. 

Having several times repeated my visit to the rector of 
St.- David's, Manayunk, and rambled with him among the 
scenes of beauty, for which the banks of the Schuylkill are 
celebrated, I resolved in the summer of 1842, to select a 
place of residence in that neighbourhood. The Schuylkill 
had always been a favourite river with me ; it is indeed a 
lovely stream, flowing in its whole course from the moun- 
tains of Carbon to the Delaware through scenes of sur- 
passing beauty. The invitations of my friend were added 
to the promptings of my own inclination to reside in his 
parish. 

On the first of July, therefore, I took possession of a 
house which chanced to be vacant, within a few minutes 
walk of both church and parsonage ; and for the two 
ensuing years divided my time between the pleasing ofBce 

of assisting J n in the duties, public and private, of a 

large and populous parish, and the quiet enjoyments of 
home, while regular arrivals of English papers gave us an 



396 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

opportunity' of keeping pace with every event transpiring 
in the old world, as fast as her majesty's semi-monthly 
mail reached the ports of New York and Boston. " The 
iwo countries now," remarked Daniel Webster, in one of 
his speeches, " lie side by side." 

One of the most attractive places where I occasionally 
did duty, when not officiating in Manayunk, was Phoenixs- 
ville, situated like our own town, on the banks of the silver 
Schuylkill, twenty miles distant, and sustained also by 
manufactures ; though having as few of the disagreeable 
adjuncts of a manufacturing village as I ever saw. The 
houses occupied by the operatives form several neat and 
comfortable rows on the main street, and evidence in their 
general appearance, and the cheerful, healthful looks of the 
inmates, the care and consideration of the mill owners. 
One of them, Mr. Mason, has extensive rolling mills, wliich, 
in their admirable construction, and the beauty of the 
machinery, are not surpassed by any English establishment 
of the same kind. About a mile from the village is one of 
the most English-looking and English-kept residences I 
have met with in the United States, standing in the midst 
of a fine estate, and commanding an extensive south view. 
It is the property of a Mr. Morris, the senior churchwarden 
of the parish. Here I was each time entertained, and 
found in the owner of the mansion — a true son of the 
Church of the genuine Sir Robert Inglis stamp — every 
attraction, intellectual and literary, that could make a visit 
agreeable. 

At Emanuel church, Kensington, in which I had 
preached about two years previously to a select feiv, col- 
lected under the old (i. e. the exclusive or pew) system, I 
was gratified to find a change made in accordance with the 
" Resolution " of the General Convention. By a vote of the 
vestry, the doors were taken from the pews, and finials 



THE APOSTOLIC SYSTEM. 397 

placed at the seat-ends ; the church doors were thrown 
open (not in mockery) to the people, without any other tax 
than their voluntary offerings on each Lord's Day.* — In 
other words, the drawing-room for the use of a select circle 
of genteel " episcopalians,'" was converted into a parish 
church. What was the immediate result? — A larger con- 
gregation, filling closely every part of the building, as well 
dressed, and more devotional than before. What further 
result ? — 

A larger treasury ! 

Such has been the effect in America, wherever the apos- 
tolic system has been tried. One after another of the 
Romanist churches has adopted it, invariably with the best 
results to the success of that sect. By it the methodists 
gather multitudes into their communion, many of whom 
would, — if not repelled from our fold — greatly prefer its 
worship and ministry. Let but the different rectors and 
vestries of newly organized parishes give sanction to the 
practice, and it would soon become universal ; and the 
American Church would then have, in her possession of an 
Offertory, a mode of sustaining the clergy, assisting the ob- 
jects of parochial education, and parochial charity, as well 
as of swelling the missionary exchequer, which none of the 
sects possess. One that will at least guard against the 
fluctuations and precariousness of the present supplies to 
these objects ; though it may fail of achieving the larger 
schemes of benevolence which a national endowment en- 
ables its trustees, the clergy, to accomplish. 

My clerical engagements also took me several times up 
the Delaware. One of these excursions, which lives in my 
memory as the most interesting in the incidents which 
marked it, was to Burlington, the residence of the Bishop 
of New Jersey. I had promised an English friend who, 
* I Cor. xvi. 2. 



398 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

at the joint instigation of D s and myself, had made 

choice of the Church as his profession, to be present at the 
ceremony of his admission to deacon's orders. His term of 
candidateship, which was made in New Jersey, expired in 
the summer of 1843, and on Trinity Sunday the bishop, 
whose canonical practice in this respect is (almost necessa- 
rily) single, held an ordination in St. Mary's. 

It was a bright sunny day, and the ample doors of River- 
side were thrown open, discovering the bishop's family at 
breakfast, while enjoying the prospect spread out by nature's 
most lavish hand before the house. The sober quiet refine- 
ment, and social comfort, presented by the family group, 
and the unambitious elegance of the mansion, imparted to 
the scene a character peculiarly English. Several beauti- 
ful children occupied their places at the family board, whose 
deportment gave evidence of their good breeding, and the 
happy influence of private and maternal training under the 
check of religious principles. 

After breakfast, I accompanied C n to the garden, 

spread round the house, where the gravelled walks, winding 
their serpentine course through borders of well trimmed 
shrubs, and the closely shaven lawn, completed the picture, 
which instantly carried our thoughts homeward. 

The church of St. Mary fronts a street a little out of the 
closest part of the city. It is cruciform in its plan, but un- 
pretending in its architectural design, and rather low. Sur- 
mounting the central elevation is a stone cross, announcing 
to the by-passer that th*e building is neither a Mahomedan 
nor a pagan, nor (by its appropriate symbol, the weather 
vane) a sectarian place of worship, but a Christian temple, 
belonging to the One Universal Church of the Apostles. 
Groups were gathered in the pleasant churchyard at the 
time of our arrival, and many had taken their seats in the 
consecrated place where the Trinity are worshipped. It 



ST. Mary's church. 399 

was the festival of that Holy Mystery, and the bishop's ser- 
mon embraced a notice of the sublime doctrine of the Three 
in One, which he treated practically in the evening's dis- 
course at three o'clock. 

The evening's service was also celebrated at eight p. m. 
in the chapel of St. Mary's Hall, when the bishop summed 
up the arguments, and enforced the exhortations used in his 
previous discourses ; adding an appeal, couched in most 
feeling language, to his female auditors to carry to their 
closets the recollection of the instructions received during 
the day. At the end of the chapel service the young ladies 
of the school, numbering about two hundred, each shook 
hands with the bishop on their way to the supper room. 

The pleasing spectacle which this, and other opportunities 
presented to me of Bishop Doane's efforts to carry out in his 
diocess a system of religious education on the principles of 
the Church, brought forcibly to my mind the eloquent and 
truthful sentiments expressed in my hearing, during my last 
visit to England in 1841, by one of our most catholic minded 
bishops* before the assembled thousands at the annual meet- 
ing of the London Sunday schools. With the vital impor- 
tance of the following query the republican prelate seems 
deeply impressed : — '■ Amidst all the difficulties and disad- 
vantages to which ill-devised and ill-directed schemes of 
instruction are liable, some system of education luill go for- 
ward. The great question is not, therefore, whether the 
rising generation shall be educated, but how it is to be edu- 
cated ? Whether in sound Christian principles, or merely 
in unholy ones ? Or, if it be at once determined — as Chris- 
tians are hound to determine — that the education shall be 
Christian ; whether it shall be built upon tJte foundation 
of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief 
* The Bishop of Ely, Dr. Allen. 



400 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

corner stone, as explained hy the Church, or as preached 
by sectarians and enthusiasts ?" 

Bishop Doane has nobly encountered the popular view of 
this question, and the factious opposition of the expediency 
advocates in the Church's ranks, in his own field of opera- 
tion, by the establishment of a system of parochial education 
for the poor, on the plan of the National Schools of England, 
as well as of high schools for the wealthier classes : [another 
college of preparatory education for boys having been during 
the present year (1836) commenced at Burlington under 
most flattering auspices, in addition to St. Mary's Hall.] 
" For we may rest assured," was the logical deduction of 
Bishop Allen, " that if we do not exert ourselves in the good 
work of educating the poorer members of our own com- 
munion in the principles of our Church, and teach them to 
love it by constantly frequenting it, and by feeling they are 
benefited by it, they will be led away from it^ by those who 
are more zealous for their sectarian tenets than we are for 
the orthodox doctrines of our own Church. If good seed be 
not diligently and extensively sown amongst them, the 
enemy will sow tares, and the good seed will be choked and 
bring forth no fruit to perfection." 

The Bishop of Ely's emphatic appeal to the true amor 
patricB of his auditors on the same occasion, — of " those who 
loved their country ; who wished virtue and true religion 
to flourish and abound in it ; who would turn many to 
righteousness, and in consequence of so doing shine them- 
selves as the stars for ever and ever," — meets, happily, with a 
warm response from more quarters than one in the United 
States ; and in finding an echo in the breasts of his brother 
prelates of New Jersey, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, 
etc., proves them to be the real patriots in a community 
where mere wordy and vaunted "patriotism" is, notorious- 
ly, a superabundant commodity. 



artists' fund society. 401 

Amongst the objects of public patronage which are espe- 
cially worthy the notice of a visitor to Philadelphia, is the 
Artists' Fund Society ; a similar establishment, on a smaller 
scale, to the Annual Exhibition of native artists at the 
National Gallery of Trafalgar Square. The building is in 
Ghesnut Street. Were it consistent with the design of 
these notes, I should be tempted to give a particular descrip- 
tion of its plan, with some discussion on the relative merits 
of the artistic contributions of this gallery, which I succes- 
sively visited during several years of its early existence. 
Among the best I may mention the names of Sully, Lamb- 
din, Neagle, Dickinson, Barratt and Officer, in portrait paint- 
ing ; and Holmes, Peale, Walker, Shaw, Williams and 
Hamilton, in landscape designs. Some small pieces by 
Mrs. Newton of Roxborough, were worthy a place in a more 
national exhibition of design than the Artists' Fund Hall of 
Philadelphia. 

26 



CHAPTER LVIII. 



A MOURNING CHURCH. 

This wilderness, the world like that poetic world of old, 

Bears one, and but one branch of gold, 

Where the blest spirit lodges like the dove ; 

And which, to Heavenly soil transplanted, will improve, 

To be, as 'twas below, the brightest branch above ; 

For whate'er tlieologic lev'lers dreain, 
There are degrees above 1 know. 
As well as here below, 

Where high patrician souls dress'd heavenly gay, 
Sit clad in lawn of purer woven day ; 
There some high Spirit's throne to Bancroft shall be given 
In the metropolis of Heaven. 

Chief of the mitred saints, and from arch-prelate here. 
Translated to arch-angel there. 

Swift. 

On February 20tb, 1843, the Church papers came to us 
dressed in mourning. The presiding bishop had departed 
this hfe on the previous 1.5th, in the house, and in the arms 
of his suffragan, and now successor in the apostohc office, 
Bishop Eastburn. And the American Church's appreciation 
of his uncommon worth, and her own lo.ss, was now evinced 
in the unusual marks of regret and respect to his memory, 
visible on all sides. In several dioceses the interior of all 
the churches were hung with black, and the clergy wore 
crape for thirty days, whilst in nearly every parish through- 
out the country the event w^as improved from the pulpit b)^ 
a funeral sermon or an appropriate address. 

Foriunate has it been for the Church of America that, in 
God's providence, she has hitherto been under the presiden- 
tial control of four such men as Seabury, Provoost, White, 



BISHOP GUISWOLd's DEATH, 403 

and Giiswolcl. The first three led her feeble host through the 
storms of opposition and rebuke that followed to the catho- 
lic communion after the Revolution ; and by their joint wis- 
dom, their moderation, and their most exemplary piety, they 
disarmed the opponents of episcopacy, and successively pre- 
siding during the period of the Church's early struggles, 
piloted her children into the full possession of the promised 
land. Their ofllice (descending by seniority of consecration) 
devolved on Bishop Griswold at Bishop White's death : he 
may well be said to have caught the mantle of his predeces- 
sor who had held the post forty-one years. Bishop Griswold 
succeeded to his primacy in 1836, having then been Bishop 
of the Eastern diocess twenty-five years. He presided at 
two General Conventions. 

One of his brother bishops* paid his memory the follow- 
ing just tribute in announcing the melancholy event of his 
death to his diocesan flock : — 

" The venerable prelate who has thus passed from among 
us was a man of primitive simplicity and piety. Through 
a long life, he gave wholly to his master's service rare en- 
dowments of mind, and rare attainments in learning, 
acquired under great and, to an ordinary man, discouraging 
disadvantages. There has seldom been so indefatigable a 
student ! He was one of the few in this or any country 
who could read, understand, or enjoy the great work of La 
Place, as made accessible by our own Bowditch. As a 
parish priest he was a pattern of pastoral diligence and 
fidelity ; and through his long episcopate, even to the latest 
of his days, he continued abundant in labours ; not sparing 
himself that he might feed the flock of which the Holy 
Ghost had made him overseer. As presiding bishop, the 
Church is indebted to him for two Pastoral Letters of the 
House of Bishops ; the latter of which, that for 1841, is a 

* Doane. 



404 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

document of the highest value,* aud will testify to the 
remotest generations, his firm adherence to the catholic 
faith, and his fearlessness and force in its assertion. He 
has gone from us in a good old age, as a shock of corn 
when it is fully ripe." 

The place and manner of Bishop Griswold's death were 
both remarkable, and have given rise to much comment 
and improvement. The following picture of that last 
scene, drawn at his funeral in Trinity Church by his suc- 
cessor in the apostolic office, the present Bishop of Massa- 
chusetts, is too graphic to be withheld : — 

'• Amidst the shock which we have all experienced, by 
this startling termination of the earthly ministry of our 
revered Ruler and Guide, will not every voice unite, with 
one consent, in the exclamation, that the exit of him whose 
remains now lie in our view, — whether that exit be con- 
sidered in reference to the precise period of his life when it 
was made ; to the spot on which it was witnessed ; or to 
the manner in which his sainted spirit took its flight, — is 
marked throughout by circumstances of almost unparalleled 
sublimity and beauty ? Let us contemplate together, for 
a few moments, this striking spectacle. As if to call our 
hearts, in a more than ordinary manner, to a sense of the 
presence and the providence of God, it pleased Him to take 
to himself our departed Overseer, within a few short days 
after the consummation of a wish Avhich had occupied the 
thouglits of our venerated Head tli rough long previous 
years. The desire of his soul had just been accomplished. 
He had seen the council of his diocese, which had been as- 
sembled at his own earnest summons, meeting in harmoni- 
ous brotherhood, and appointing his official successor. He 
had received the kind voice of confirmation to this choice 
from the near and the distant pordons of that spiritual 

* From this letter copious extracts are given in chapter LIII. 



BISHOP GRISWOLD's DEATH. 405 

Body, of which wc are a parcel and a part. And, when all 
these preparatory measures had been completed, he had, in 
company with some of his brethren in office, and in the 
presence of his assembled clergy, performed the last finish- 
ing and apostolic ceremonial, within the precincts of this 
consecrated temple. And now, having been permitted to 
behold all things done, he walks to and fro, for a few 
weeks, in the midst of us ; and then, in the fulness of 
years, he passes instantly away, and enters into an ever- 
lasting rest from all his labours. And, to invest with still 
farther interest and solemnity the closing moments of his 
career, it is so ordered, in the course of Providence, that his 
spirit shall escape from its earthly prison-house beneath the 
very roof of him, who had been destined to stand in his 
room, and to continue his labours, and thus, by a most sin- 
gular concurrence of circumstances, the father lays down 
his dust, literally speaking, at the feet of the son. But the 
glorious picture is not yet completed. You have seen this 
good old man separated from those over whom he presided, 
immediately after the fulfilment of his dearest wish and 
prayer. You have seen him yielding up the ghost within 
the actual dwelling of his successor in duty. And now, 
how does he die? Could any departure have been 
imagined, more entirely in harmony with the previous tenor 
of his character and life? After a lengthened course of 
calm and meek exertion, he resigns, without a struggle, his 
ransomed soul into the arms of his Redeemer. He sweetly 
falls asleep in Christ. And as I stood over that noble and 
majestic form, and watched the almost imperceptible ebbing 
of existence as it hastened to its close, I could not but in- 
wardly exclaim to myself, in the feeling, though not in the 
language, of the bard of life, death, and immortality : — 

" ' Starts timid nature at the gloomy pass 1 
The soft transition call it; and be cheered '' " 



406 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

Bishop Eastburn's tribute to the humihty and quiet vir- 
tues of his episcopal predecessor will complete a portrait, 
which cannot fail to interest in a strong degree the catholic 
readers of this country : — 

" My personal recollection of our venerated bishop dates 
from the period of my early youth. Thrown into his 
society, at that time, by circumstances of a most interest- 
ing character, a near view was thus afforded me, at this 
season of my opening life of that wonderfully ' meek and 
quiet spirit,' which accompanied him at all times, and 
through all places ; and it is impossible for me ever to lose 
the impression which it produced. It was this quality, in 
truth, that gave such attractive beauty to his fine coun- 
tenance, which had an expression upon it such as we fre- 
quently see upon the canvass, in the embodied conceptions 
of the great masters ; but which we seldom witness in our 
daily walks among men. That the habitual feeling of 
that sainted man, whose loss we are now deploring, was 
one of entire self-renunciation, all who knew him will bear 
witness ; and how instructive for us to survey such an ex- 
ample, in a world where eminent models in that depart- 
ment of Christian virtue are so rarely to be found, I need 
not surely remind you. To this spirit of humiliation the 
whole current of the world is so utterly opposed, that it is 
considered as of slight account in men's estimate of human 
excellence. And yet who can forget, that, when our Divine 
Master pronounces his beatitudes upon the mountain, he 
numbers this same lowly mind among the most resplendent 
endowments of the creature ; and holds it up to our con- 
templation as the object of his choicest benediction. " Bless- 
ed are the meek ; for they shall inherit the earth ;" " Bless- 
ed are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of 
Heaven." Or how can we likewise forget, that this hum- 
bleness of soul, so little esteemed by a vain and self-seek- 



BISHOP GRISWOLd's DEATH. 407 

ing world, is the very mind that was in Christ; 'who, 
being in the form of God, made himself of no reputation, 
and took upon him the form of a servant?' To this 
chastened and unpretending spirit, therefore, so pre-emi- 
nently characteristic of the departed servant of God, whose 
remains are now before us, let our thoughts be turned this 
day. Let us seek to form it within ourselves as he formed 
it, — by daily walking with God, in the secret and subduing 
exercises of meditation and prayer. There was something 
majestic in the simplicity of that venerable man ; some- 
thing which, while it awakened love, kept at a distance all 
profane intrusion, and compelled from others that deference 
which was his due ; something which one could never be 
in the presence of without an immediate consciousness of 
beholding the perfect exemplification of that sentence, ' He 
that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' " 

The following was Bishop Chase's notice of his brother 
prelate's death, in a letter addressed to a clergyman of 
Philadelphia : — 

" Yesterday the news of the death of our senior bishop 
arrived in our midst. I speak so because of our little, com- 
pact, fraternal, and insulated character. When the mail 
arrives we hail it as the messenger of good or ill to us all : 
for what affects one moves the whole ; and often is heard 
the prayer, that God would enalile us to bear the ///, as well 
as give us grace to keep us humble under the effects of good 
tidings. If I remember right, yesterday I had forgotten to 
pray in this manner, when the papers were all poured out of 
Jubilee mail bag on my table. I say I had forgotten to 
pray, — ' Merciful Lord enable me to submit with resignation 
to whatever of woe may be herein contained,' when the 
Boston paper was discovered to be in mourning. It was 
immediately opened, and my wife exclaimed — ' Bishop 
Griswold is dead !' — It was indeed so : our dear dear senior 



408 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

bishop has, indeed, passed suddenly to his high reward. 
The short story told in the ' Witness ' was read and re- 
echoed from mouth to mouth, till the whole number of our 
faithful ones were in possession of all that now could be 
known of this melancholy event, — for such it is to me. I 
knew Bishop Griswold — I believe he is in Paradise. But I 
know also myself ; and the consequent miserable exchange 
the Church must sustain in receiving me in the place of so 
good, and great a man. Oh, God of mercy, take pity on 
thine elect one — thine own Apostolic Church — thine es- 
poused BRIDE ; whose garments when steeped in the blood 
of martyrs, thou hast so often cleansed in thine own atoning 
blood !•' 

Another brother remarked — " Our departed friend and 
father was ready to be offered. He had fought a good fight 
— he had kept the faith. AIL. things in the diocess over 
which he presided were ' set in order.' But six weeks ago 
a man after the bishop's own heart was consecrated to as- 
sist and succeed him in the apostolic office ; and, by a sin- 
gular providence, the venerable prelate lays himself down 
to die in the study of his successor, as though he came to 
leave his mantle with his younger brother, and to resign to 
him with his own hands the commission which he had so 
long and so faithfully discharged." 

" Yes, the good old man is gone, 
He is gone to his saintly rest, 
Where no sorrow can be known, 

And no trouble can molest ; 
For his crown of life is won, 

And the dead in Christ are bless'd." 

Most truly, when the sainted Griswold gave up the ghost 
a great man fell in Israel ! A man great in intellectual 
powers, great in learning, great in his untiring efforts 
in the cause of Christianity, great for his piety and holy 



BISHOP GRISW^OLd's DEATH. 409 

zeal, great as a prelate of the Church, — in his primitive 
life, and the abundance of his apostolic labours, — and pre- 
eminently great in that singular humility which was the 
crowning grace of his character. His eloquence — so nat- 
ural and so winning on the attention of his hearers — and 
his varied gifts as a divine and a Christian teacher were, 
however, as remarkable as this shining grace ; and well is 
it for the Catholic Church of America that he is succeeded 
in his responsible office by one who so closely copies that 
humility, and possesses, also, so large a share of industry 
and patient perseverance. No one, in the whole company 
of her spiritual fathers, was better fitted to preside in the 
Church councils. Though moderate and mild, he was yet 
firm if occasion required ; he cared not for the face of man 
whilst engaged in his Master's work. How faithful he was 
with his own clergy, his numerous conventional addresses, 
and episcopal charges bear testimony. No ])isliop, from the 
apostles downwards, has been more beloved by his clergy, 
and this love was felt Ijy all who were placed under his 
spiritual guardianship. In his death the Church of Ameri- 
ca was wounded at the heart ! Like the solitary city, be- 
come a widow, it could be said of her. Her tears are 07i her 
cheeks ; she smites her breasts in desolation, her priests 
sigh, her virgins are ajfticted, and she is in bitterness. 

"Kind star! still may'st thou shed thy sacred influence here, 

Or from thy private peaceful orb appear ; 
For sure we want some guide from Heaven, to show 

The way which every wand'ring fool below 

Pretends so perfectly to know. 
Mistaken idiots ! see how giddily they run ; 

Led blindly on by avarice, or pride — 

What mighty numbers follow them, 

Each fond of erring with his guide." 



CHAPTER LIX. 

REMOVAL TO MARYLAND. A " PUSEYITE " RECTOR. 

"chapel royal" AT WASHINGTON. — ROCKVILLE. 

THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 

In the summer of 1844, I received a joint invitation from 
the vestry of Rockville parish in Maryland, and the bishop 
of that diocess, to succeed an old incumbent who was trans- 
ferred to the rectorship of a parish in the city of Washing- 
ton, from which Rockville is fourteen miles distant. I 
readily responded to this invitation, as my friend Jansen had 
now left Manayunk, having received an appointment to a 
more lucrative post in Tennessee, through the interest of 
his brother-in-law Dr. (now Bishop Freeman.) We had 
already directed our eyes to the more genial atmosphere of 
Maryland, and the appointment was regarded as very oppor- 
tune. Nor were we disappointed in any of our expectations. 
Maryland more nearly resembles England in its climate, 
and (notwithstanding the institution of slavery) in the gen- 
eral framework of its domestic and social institutions, than 
any section of the Union, the cities of Boston and Newport 
excepted. The customs of its first settlers, and the high 
tone of character they gave to its infant society, still exist 
in the upper and middle classes, untouched even by the 
shock of the Revolution, and the political changes to which 
that event is constantly giving rise. 

I passed a few days at the bishop's residence in Baltimore, 
and several more at Elkton, Cockeysville, and Washington, 



MARYLAND. 411 

before taking charge of my parish. Mr. Goldsborough, the 
rector of Trinity, Elkton, is one of the most active clergy- 
men of the diocess. He has been singularly successful iu 
reviving the condition of a large and populous parish, em- 
bracing two congregations, by whom he is deservedly beloved. 
It is one of the parishes in which the provisions of the Church 
are fully carried out, and the rubrical directions of the prayer- 
book are followed on occasions of public worship verbat'mi 
et Uteratini. Their admirable propriety, and the superior 
effect upon the worshippers, was agreeably manifested on 
several occasions of public worship at which I was present. 
The substitution of the Church system, in every part of 
parochial economy, for the " old " (?) system of innovations, 
has in this case resulted in a large increase of activity and 
spiritual prosperity amongst the parishioners, and that in a 
soil of singular sterility. Such results have appeared in 
each instance where the same course — the only honest one — 
has been pursued. Of what importance then are the igno- 
rant and factious cavils of semi-dissenting objectors ? 

At Cockeysville, I found a hearty welcome under the roof 
of Mr. Callahan, the rector. This parish, previously in a 
declinmg condition under the "old'' system, and an " evan- 
gelical " regimen, was fast aw^akening from the long-drawn 
slumber of anti-'- (ractarian" torpor, under the energetic 
superintendence of the excellent rector. Mr. Callahan is a 
sound scholar, and biblical critic. He was elected to the 
w ealthier and more populous parish of " William and Mary," 
just before my withdrawal from the country. May God. in 
mercy, grant that his disconsolate people in Baltimore county, 
may be saved from any declension from the fervour of their 
first love ! 

In Washington I met a former acquaintance in the w^of thy 
rector of St. John's, from whom I received a renewal of 
kindness. I found him much changed in appearance, and 



412 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

labouring under an attack of fever, the result of exposure to 
the rays of a powerful sun, which made him request me to 
fill his place in St. John's church on the Sunday following 
my arrival in the city.* The church stands in President 
square, facing the executive mansion. In the morning the 
president and his daughter, with several of the cabinet, and 
a large number of government officers, were amongst the 
worshippers. The British minister, Mr. Pakenhain, occu- 
pied the pew which has from the first erection of the build- 
ing belonged to our representative. In this church a recent 
judicious alteration lias banished the useless reading-desk. 
The whole service is performed at the altar, and a lecturn 
in the front centre serves the celebrant both for lessons and 
sermon-stand. This arrangement possesses the advantage 
of extreme simplicity, as well adapted to a church or chapel 
of limited proportions ; especially as the lecturn (unlike the 
cumbrous pile of carpenter's work^ — those fearful eye-sores — 
in front of many English chancels, with their three square 
boxes rising picturesquely one above the other, for the use 
of preacher, reader and clerk,) presents no perceptible obstruc- 
tion to the view of God's altar. * 

The parish of which I now took charge was formerly 
within the limits of St. John's, Washington. With the for- 
mation of the chapelry in 1719 the "Book of Records" 
begins. There were two rectors before the revolutionary 
war,t when the Rev. Thomas Read took charge of the 

* Mr. Hawley died a few months after the above date, after a ministry of 
thirty years in Washington. Whilst recording my acquaintance with him, I 
cannot withhold a passing tribute to the names of Pyne, Giliiss, French, and 
Harris, clergymen of that city ; from each of whom I received the kindest atten- 
tions, the more gratifying grom their being purely voluntary. Such I can 
guarantee to any clergyman from this country who may visit the American 
capital. 

* The Rev. George Murdock, "inducted" (by the governor) in 1726, and 
the Rev. Alexander Williamson, inducted in 1761. 



THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 413 

parish, which he held for forty years ; during which time, 
as appears from a minute in his own handwriting, he had 
only been absent from it thirty months. A commendable 
instance of ministerial fidelity, and the more remarkable in 
America from its extreme rarity.* 

The history of the Church in Maryland is coeval with its 
existence as a province and an independent state. The 
liberal and enlightened policy of Lord Baltimore—" the wis- 
dom of which," writes Dr. Hawks, " was the more remarka- 

* Mr. Read was succeeded in the rectorship by the Rev. Alfred Henry Dash- 
ields, when the parishioners being increasingly dissatisfied with the location of 
the church (two miles from Rockvillc, on the Baltimore road), commenced a 
subscription for the erection of a new one. Before this design could be carried 
into effect Mr. Dashields withdrew from the parish, in August, 1817. The pro- 
ject of changing the situation of the church was, however, soon renewed by the 
vestry, and a committee appointed to examine the old building and report on the 
subject. In 1820 the Rev. Thomas G. Allen, now of Philadelphia, was elected; 
and the project of "a church in Rockville " was prosecuted with spirit. A 
grant of land in an eligible situation was conveyed by Solomon Holland, Esq., 
upon which the present substantial and commodious structure stands. 

In March, 1828, Mr. Allen withdrew, to become assistant- minister of St, 
Paul's in Philadelphia ; and the Rev. Henry C. Knight, of the diocess of 
Massachusetts, was appointed to the pastoral charge. He held it for one year, 
when the Rev. Levin J. Gilliss assumed the rectorship, and retained it fourteen 
years. 

Mr. Gilliss' term of residence in Rockville appears to have been marked by 
great harmony amongst his numerous parishioners, whose attachment to him 
was the result of his zeal for their spiritual welfare, and the uniform kindness 
and urbanity of his deportment (of which I had repeated examples during my 
occasional intercourse with him). His name and character will be long cher- 
ished by his former people with affectionate regard. During the period of his 
residence in Rockville, the parishioners erected a commodious and tastefully ar- 
ranged parsonage. The land on which it stands was the gift of the Hon. Judge 
Kilgour (now deceased), a liberal friend of the Church. The family of Kilgours 
are of Scottish origin, and descended from the learned and pious Bishop Kil- 
gour, primate of the Church of Scotland, predecessor of the late Bishop Skin- 
ner (the present Bishop Skinner's fother) in the see of Aberdeen and the prima- 
cy. Bishop Kilgour, it will be recollected, was Bishop Seabury's chief consecra- 
tor in 1781, by which act the American Church first acquired its complete form. 



414 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ble as it was far in advance of the spirit of the age"— encour- 
aged the emigration to the new colony of numerous members 
of the Church of England, and the protestant sects from 
Virginia and the mother country, who in time outnumbered 
the adherents of the Roman see. In 1664 an Act passed by 
the Assembly against blasphemy and profanity, describes a 
motley brood : " Schismatic, Idolater, Puritan, Lutheran, 
Calvinist, Anabaptist, Brownist, Antinomian, Barrowist, 
Roundhead," &c. The moral aspect of society does not 
seem to have improved with the multiplication of sects, if a 
letter addressed by the Rev. Mr. Yeo to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury in the year 1675 may be relied on. He writes : 
" The province of Maryland is in a deplorable condition for 
want of an established ministry. Here are ten or twelve 
counties, and in them, at least, twenty thousand souls, and 
but three Protestant ministers of the Church of England. 
The [Romish] priests are provided for, and the quakers take 
care of those that are speakers ; but no care is taken to build 
up churches in the protestant religion. The Lord's day is 
profaned, religion is despised, and all notorious vices are 
committed, so that it has become a Sodom of uncleanness 
and a pest-house of iniquity. As Lord Baltimore is gone to 
England, I have made bold to address this to your grace, to 
beg that your grace would be pleased to solicit him for some 
established support for a protestant ministry." 

The want of sufficient support foi protestant ministers, 
and the high official distinction many Romanists deservedly 
held, and which they had never abused, did not, however, 
warrant the grossly unjust act of King Charles the Second, 
who ordered the proprietary " to put all the offices into the 
hands of the protestants." The cry of " No Popery ! " had 
been raised in the province, provoked by the religious con- 
tentions in England on this subject, and Charles was very 
willing to seize upon this, or any thing else, which furnished 



THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 415 

him with a pretext for taking away the charter of the pro- 
prietary. Be that as it may, as soon as Sir Lionel Copley, 
the protestant governor, arrived, in 1692, the first act of the 
Assembly, after a recognition of the royal authority of Wil- 
liam and Mary, was to pass a bill " for the service of Almighty 
God, and the establishment of the Protestant religion in the 
province of Maryland." This law provided, that " the 
Church of England should have and enjoy all her rights, 
liberties, and franchises wholly inviolable, as they then were, 
or thereafter should be esta1)lished by law; that the several 
counties should be laid out into parishes, and that a record 
of the metes and bounds thereof should be deposited with 
the several county courts, and also with the governor and 
council ; that the freeholders of each parish should meet 
and appoint six vestrymen ; that a tax of forty pounds of 
tobacco per poll should be laid on each taxable person in the 
province, and that the sheriffs should collect the same ; that 
from the proceeds of this tax the vestries of the several 
parishes in which there were no churches built should forth- 
with cause houses of worship to be erected, after which the 
tax was to be applied to the support of the minister ; but if 
no minister had been inducted, then to be applied by the 
vestrymen to the necessary repairs of the churches, or other 
pious uses in their discretion."* The vestries were also 
made bodies corporate to receive and hold property ; and it 
was provided also, probably to secure perpetuity to the sys- 
tem adopted, that each vestry should have power to fill all 
vacancies occurring in it. 

Thus Anglo-Episcopacy became the estabhshed religion 
of the province. 

Under this statute, the ten counties of the province were 
divided geographically info thirty-one parishes. An arrival 
of clergymen from England supplied those newly formed, 

* Hawks's " Ecclesixstical Contributions," vol. ii. 



416 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

and the machinery of a state Church was actively put into 
operation by the executive. Though there are some evils 
inseparable from this kind of alliance, and the constitution 
of that general government, of which Maryland is now only 
a federal branch, is framed on principles which forbid, and 
make impracticable, a rejunction of the civil and religious 
office, yet truth obliges the historian to record that the 
Church once established in Maryland, both in its early 
operations, in the fulness of its growth as a state-establish- 
ment, and in its later fruits, gathered from the maturity of 
those seeds so plentifully and assiduously sown before she 
was humbled in the dust, proved most eminently a blessing 
to the community, and was the spiritual mother of many 
thousands, whose children or descendants, however since 
tossed about by the ever-conflicting winds of schism, will 
yet bear testimony to the maternal care with which she 
tended those entrusted to her guardianship. Her gold, 
seven times purified, shews now, in her renewed youth, 
brighter than when supported by the law, sanctified by 
persecution, and meeter for the Mastefs use. 

With the return of peace after the revolutionary war, the 
remaining clergy made laudable and self-sacrificing exer- 
tions to recover the lost ground occasioned by its distractions 
and the accompanying inroads of sectarianism, whose 
preachers had drawn off a number of families from their 
attachment to the,Church. The old complaint made by the 
clergy of Maryland was again renewed, viz. " that there 
were a sort of travelling pretenders to preaching that came 
from New England, and other places, which delude, not 
only the protestant dissenters from our Church, but many 
of the Churchmen themselves, by their extemporary prayers 
and preachments, for which they are admitted by the people, 
and get money of them."* 

* In a letter found by Dr. Hawks, in the archives of Lambeth Palace. 



THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 417 

Times, it is true, are changed ! Though the latter part 
of tliis plaint is correct enough, yet the dissenting ministers 
of Maryland now number amongst them many who are 
more than mere " pretenders to preaching" — eloquent ex- 
pounders, possessing respectable scholarship. It may, how- 
ever, be stated, that the number of seceding sects has since 
increased in that one section of the United States from 
about five to fifty, differing more widely from each other 
than the first separatists differed from the Church which 
they left : a strong argument for those who have adhered to 
Apostolic Order to continue steadfast in " the old paths and 
the good way." 

The amended act of the legislature, incorporating •' the 
Episcopal church of Maryland," strikes out of the old stat- 
ute all the articles which connected it with the state as a 
civil institution. Vestries are chosen in the same way, the 
oath being differently worded. Vestry meetings are to be 
held on the first Monday in February, May, August, and 
November, at eleven o'clock, a.m. The rector is a member 
of the vestr)'" and chairman thereof, with power to call spe- 
cial meetings. The powers of churchwardens, as civil 
officers of the peace, inspectors of tocacco, &c., were taken 
away, and their duties limited to the preservation of the 
peace in the church and chapels of the parish, and lifting 
the oblations at the communion. Elections for vestrymen 
and churchwardens to be held, as before, on Easter Monday. 
"Every free white male citizen above twenty-one years of 
age, resident of the parish where he offers his vote six 
months next preceding the day of election, and a member 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and who shall also 
contribute to the charges of the said parish in which he 
offers to vote," &c., has a right of suffrage in said election. 

The old parish bounds remain, except where the Diocesan 
Convention, at the request of adjoining parishes, alters 

27 



418 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

them ; and the parochial rights of the rectors are secured in 
Maryland by the double protection of the ecclesiastical and 
civil law. The former in her thirty-first canon makes it 
penal for " one clergyman belonging to this Church to 
officiate, either by preaching, reading prayers, or otherwise, 
in the parish or within the parochial cure of another clergy- 
man, unless he have received express permission for that 
purpose from the minister of the parish or cure ; or, in his 
absence, from the churchwardens and vestrymen ;" and 
the latter subjects the party who violates its provisions to a 
penalty of eight dollars for each offence, " recoverable be- 
fore any justice of the peace, to be applied to the use of the 
parish in such manner as the vestry may direct." 

Under a succession of catholic bishops, pre-eminently dis- 
tinguished amongst her sister-diocesses for their learning 
and tlie vigour of their administration, the Maryland Church 
has, since receiving an episcopal head, " lengthened her cords 
and strengthened her stakes." The present excellent pre- 
late who presides over her destinies, reports to the last Gen- 
eral Convention a hundred clergymen ; five of them instruo- 
tors in incorporated seminaries of learning, and six, teachers 
of classical schools, in addition to ministerial duty. Since 
called to the high office which he has, with such remark- 
able wisdom and prudence, filled, twenty-five deacons have 
been admitted to the priesthood, sixteen candidates have 
been ordained deacons, and there are eighteen candidates 
now on the list. There are 118 churches, many of them 
elegant structures of stone, affording accommodation for 
37,500 persons. Eleven churches are now building, and 
eleven new churches now awaiting consecration. There 
are parsonages in twenty-nine parishes and glebes in six- 
teen, varying in size from six to 600 acres ; 3793 Sunday- 
school children, under strict Church teaching, by 615 cate- 
chists. A fine college (on an ample tract of land), has been 



THE CHURCH IN MARYLAND. 419 

established, and is in active operation through Bishop Whit- 
tingham's untiring efforts ; to whom, with the Standing 
Committee of the diocess, the donors have made it over in 
trust as a Church institution. It has ah'eady nearly fifty 
students under seven professors, four of them clergymen ! 
There is an incorporated institute for girls, under the bishop's 
visitation, and four others (Church schools), partially or 
wholly endowed ; and a preparatory school for candidates 
for holy orders ; five parochial schools, held in school-houses 
erected for the purpose ; five female orphan asylums, and a 
fund for the education of poor children ; a diocesan " Pray- 
er-Book and Homily Society," which distributes more than 
a thousand prayer-books, annually, besides a proportion of 
the large size for aged persons. Add to these statistics, that 
the contributions of the faithful in the diocess, for religious 
and charitable purposes, during the last three years, has 
been 43,906 dollars ; and what Maryland Churchman can 
help exclaiming, " Surely God is good to Israel !" He has, 
indeed, visited the vine of his own right handles planting. 



CHAPTER LX. 



A MARYLAND CONVENTION. 



The Convention of the Church in Maryland was held 
in Baltimore, shortly after my removal to that diocess, but 
the engagements attending the removal of the family to 
Rockville prevented my attendance, beyond part of a day, 
on its sittings. I was much gratified in witnessing the 
entire proceedings of this body, the year following, just 
before taking my departure from the United States. The 
session, in both cases, lasted four days, several questions of 
considerable interest having to be settled. One of these 
related to the proposed admission of a new congregation, 
out of the ancient parish of St. John, Hagerstown. The 
memorialists had withdrawn from the pastoral care of the 
rector* on the ground of his introducing " novelties"' in the in- 
ternal construction of the church edifice, and '' innovations " 
on the " old mode " of conducting the service. The " novel- 
ties " consisted in restoring the chancel to the original 
plan, as it is seen in many of our English churches, and as 
it was invariably arranged in American churches before the 
Revolution ; and the " innovations " in a compliance with 
the bishop's recommendation to lay aside the gown, and use 
the Offertory every Sunday ! The Convention, however, 
sustained Mr. Lyman, by a vote of forty-four clergy to 
twenty-one ; and of laity, twenty-seven to seventeen ; and 
on the renewal of the application in 1845, it was rejected 
by more than two-thirds of both orders. 

* The Rev. Theodore B. Lyman, A.M. 



MARYLAND CONVENTION OF 1844. 421 

And yet the laity of Maryland understand their rights as 
well as the wiseacres of Tottenham and Ware ! 

The laity !— Why, the clerical party in the two Conven- 
tions I attended, expressly abstained (at the bishop's sugges- 
tion) from taking any part in the discussion on these rubrical 
points. The worn-out charge of " clerical infringement on 
popular rights " having been trumped up by the factionists, 
whose aim was, too evidently, to iise the uninformed classes 
amongst the people as the instruments of their own party 
purposes, the question was left entirely in the hands of lay- 
men ; and well was the contest sustained by the friends 
of Church order ! The dogmatic expounders of ecclesi- 
astical rule and precedent who figure so learnedly in the 
editorial columns of certain secular prints in the English 
metropolis, and their blinded dupes in the refractory vestries 
of suburban parishes, would have been put to the blush by 
the historical knowledge, and the intimate acquaintance 
with the whole subject of ritual and rubrical law, displayed 
by the intelligent laics of Maryland on these occasions. 
The triumph of principle, truth, and co7nnion sense, was 
complete !— and, but for the dogged obstinacy of party 
prejudice, would have been followed by an unanimous 
vote. But in religious as well as in secular disputes, the 
old couplet too generally applies : — 

" A man convinced against his will 
Is of the same opinion still." 

It is due, however, to the Church convocations of Ameri- 
ca, to add, that they are, with only occasional exceptions, 
conducted with great good humour, and that but little of 
the acerbity of temper, which is engendered by party spirit 
in the height of debate, remains after the members have 
risen from their seats. The interchange of friendly offices 
continues, even in the intervals during the session, when 



422 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

business is suspended ; while the greetings on coming to- 
gether, and the farewells at separation between opposing 
champions in a vexed question, would lead an indifferent 
spectator to suppose that no hostility could possibly exist 
between opponents. That much of this appearance is 
merely the result of good breeding, and a deference to the 
laws of Christian courtesy, cannot be doubted ; yet the 
very existence of this aspect of harmony every where but 
on the floor of convention, is a sufficient argument (when 
we look at the many good effects of the institution itself) 
against the objections which the Erastian, in our own 
Church, and the timid of every class, urge against the 
revival of Convocation. Circumstances are, however, daily 
proving the incompetency of tlie Church of England to act 
efficiently without her Convocation, and exhibiting the 
absolute necessity, on many grounds, to convene it at an 
early day. 

The conventional debates in the diocesan, as well as the 
General Conventions in America, bring out some of the first 
talent in the country. In Maryland, Judges Magruder and 
Chambers, Messrs. Hugh D. Evans, Alexander, Coxe, and 
Schnebly, are as distinguished at the bar, and in the legis- 
lative assembly, as in the councils of the Church. Judge 
Chambers has few equals in the United States, for his 
ability in forensic debate. His powers of logic are well set 
off by a large share of humour and wit, which were 
brought into play with great effect on the occasion of the 
Hagerstown contest. Mr. Evans is the editor of the " True 
Catholic," a monthly review, which holds the same rank in 
America as the best of our English Church periodicals, and 
is surpassed in the brilliancy of its articles by none. He is 
likewise a prominent member of the bar, and an able 
writer on jurisprudence. Mr, Schnebly belongs to a family 
distinguished for the ability of its members. He is editor 



MARYLAND CONVENTION OP 1841- 423 

of "The Hagerstown Pledge," and enjoys an extensive 
reputation as an elegant writer and a popular lecturer on 
scientific subjects.* 

Bishop Whittingham's opinion on the subject of the Ha- 
gerstown controversy may be learnt from the following allu- 
sion to ritual matters, in the course of his Address : like every 
thing from his practised pen, a most masterly document, of 
which, though the principal feature of the conventional dis- 
cussion on this occasion calls for only this quotation, it was 
the least important in the whole Address : — 

" On Wednesday, July 26th, I had the great pleasure to 
officiate in laying the corner-stone of St. Stephen's church, 
Lee Street, in Baltimore, using for the purpose an office 
prepared (principally from the form put forth by the late 
venerable Bishop of the Eastern diocess) and published by 
me for use on such occasions in this diocess. I delivered an 
address to a large and attentive assemblage. It was pleasing 
to observe how decidedly favourable an impression was 
produced by these services, and in particular by the at- 
tendance of several of the clergy in the proper ecclesiastical 
garment, the surplice. 

'•' The edifice commenced on that occasion has been since 
happily completed. In it we have a remarkable proof how 
much can be accomplished by a judicious and economical 
use of very slender means. For less than 2500 dollars, an 
edifice has been provided, furnishing every desirable ac- 
commodation for all the rites and ordinances of the Church. 
If any think its style of arrangement and decoration faulty, 



* The brother of this gentleman, Mr. William Schnebly, has recently visited 
Elngland, where he has succeeded in bringing before the public some important 
improvements in the steam-engine, as applied to railway locomotives; and the 
direct application of steam to the periphery. He has also invented a new print- 
ing-press, constructed on an admirable plan, combining many advantages ovet 
those now in use, with greater simplicity. 



424 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

it is for them to consider the tendency of a gradual relin- 
quishment of old practices, usages, and ornaments, to an 
usurping body that stands ready to claim them, and with 
them the style and title of ' the Catholic Church ;' of which 
in our creeds we profess to assert our right of membership. 
None of the reformed communions, except the English 
Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians, have ever shrunk from 
emblazoning the cross, as distinguished from the crucifix, 
on buildings and furniture used for sacred purposes. It is, 
to say the least, an unwise policy in us, placed as we are 
between the Scylla of Popery and the Charybdis of Dissent, 
to be more squeamish than Martin Luther and John Cal- 
vin. The same remark applies to the arrangement of the 
chancel furniture, by which, in St. Stephen's, the most has 
been made of a little room, and a degree of simplicity and 
solemnity attained which it would be difficult otherwise to 
combine. If there be a ground of objection to the usage 
of offering the morning and evening prayers at the altar, it 
is that of an approach to irreverence and an unseemly en- 
croachment on the high distinction of the Eucharistic 
service. To that I do not think it justly liable ; while it 
removes one stumbling-block out of the w^ay of our dis- 
senting brethren, who are accustomed to express dislike of 
the change of place necessary when the rubrics are duly 
observed in a church furnished with a reading-pew and 
pulpit without the chancel rails. Within the chancel those 
fixtures never were introduced until within the last sixty 
years. 

" Chang-e of garment, too, is an objection often made 
against our services when the surplice is laid aside for the 
purpose of preaching in the gown. It may be obviated by 
doing as the reformers did, performing all sacred duties in 
the one sacred garment. The fact is indisputable ; Ghest, 
one of the revisers of the Prayer-book in the reign of Eliza- 



MARYLAND CONVENTION OF 1844. 425 

beth, having argued, in his official report on completing the 
revision, in favour of the use of the surphce in the Commun- 
ion office from its use in preaching. * * * 

" Thursday, October the 6th, at the request of the rector, 
churchwardens, and vestry of St. John's, Hagerstown, I 
dedicated that church under circumstances similar to those 
of St. John's in Georgetown. Very great improvement has 
been made in the Church, and, in particular, the chancel 
for spaciousness, commodiousness, and tasteful arrangement 
of its beautiful communion table, pulpit, and lecturn, is, in 
my judgment, among the best I have ever seen. Let me 
not be misunderstood in thus commending it. 1 well know 
of how little moment matters of taste and convenience in 
the material edifice and its appurtenances are, in comparison 
with the weightier matters of faith and holiness. But 
where the latter are not left unattended to, surely it is but 
a bounden duty to superadd the lesser things pertaining to 
adornment, and fitness, and old time-honoured usage ! To 
siihstitnte punctilious nicety in robings and furniture and 
architectural properties for the Gospel in its fulness and the 
Law in its heart-searching power, were madness ; but the 
Law is not less stringent, the Gospel not less powerful and 
full of comfort, because proclaimed in a church built, fur- 
nished, and adorned according to the strictest principles of 
ecclesiastical taste and primitive antiquity ; and why should 
we forego those advantages, when they may be conjoined 
with such as we already have ? The folly and the sin is 
in rating them above their due ; and that is done equally 
by superstitious dread as by superstitious regard. It is be- 
cause I feel sure that there is no tendency among us to 
siuear by the gold of the temple that I feel safe in urging, 
on all due occasions, more attention to the externals of re- 
ligious worship — to those things which distinguish the 



426 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

house of God and the service of God from all other places 
and occasions of assemblage." 

One practice of the Maryland Conventions must not be 
passed by. It is worthy of imitation in every clerical 
gathering ; and its good effect has, since its introduction in 
this instance, been visible in the happy union of feeling 
beginning to appear amongst the Church legislators of this 
diocess : it is to assist daily at the Holy Communion, which 
(rubrically) forms a distinct mid-day service. The pious 
clergy of Maryland, like those of a primitive age, regard 
the Holy Sacrifice, as " an holocaust of perfect love ; pro- 
pitiatory for sins past, expiatory of pains and punishments 
due to them, impetratory of new gifts and graces, eucharis- 
tical for blessings and benefits received." 



CHAPTER LXI. 

GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1844. 

In October of this year I attended the General Conven- 
tion of the Church, which held its meeting in Philadelphia; 
At this convention the aged Bishop of Illinois presided. 
The following tribute was paid by the House of Bishops to 
the memory of the late senior, with whose name was appro- 
priately associated the late Bishop of Virginia, whose death 
had occurred on November 11th, 1841 ;— 

" Whe7'eas, since our last meeting in General Convention 
it hath pleased the Almighty, in his wise Providence, to 
remove from their probation the two senior members of the 
House of Bishops — the Rt. Rev. A. V. Griswold, D. D., and 
the Rt. Rev. R. C. Moore, D. D. ; and whereas it has been 
usual, under like dispensations of Divine Providence, for 
this House to make a record of its sentiments in relation to 
them : 

^^ Resolved, That we reverently bow to the will of God; 
that in the lives and labours of these, our departed brethren, 
we recognise the good Providence and Grace of God, with- 
out whom no one is holy, no one is strong ; and that we 
regard their example of unreserved and cheerful devoted- 
ness to their high calling, of meekness, humility, and charity 
in word and deed, as a valuable legacy to the Church, and 
especially to the clergy." 

The House of Clerical and Lay Deputies unanimously 
passed the following : — ' 



428 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" That this House cannot adjourn without expressing its 
painful sense of the loss which this branch of the Church of 
Christ has sustained in the death of its late presiding Bishop, 
the Right Reverend Alexander Viets Griswold, D.D., Bishop 
of the Eastern Diocess, whose humble piety, fervent zeal 
and Christian prudence, during a long life of usefulness, 
rendered him an eminent blessing to the Church, and en- 
deared him to all who were privileged to enjoy the benefits 
of his ministerial and episcopal labours." 

This Convention was only surpassed in its interest, since 
the American Church's first General Convention, by the 
memorable meeting of 1835. Two new canons were passed,* 
and seven of the old ones amended. t The first of the new 
canons allowed the admission to deacon's orders of a class 
of persons without the usual literary qualifications. The 
persons so admitted to be assistants to the rector in whose 
parish they resided, and ineligible to seats in the General or 
Diocesan Convention. A similar canon was sent down by 
the bishops to the lower house in 1841, but was returned. 
It was designed exclusively for the western and southern 
diocesses, neither of whose bishops can avail themselves of 
it without the consent of their conventions. It was doubt- 
less a hastily concocted measure ; and would, if carried out, 
more embarrass the bishops than forward the operations of 
the Church in those districts. I believe that only one dio- 
cess has made the canonical request to the episcopal head 
to admit persons to orders under this act. 

The other new canon was highly important ; it related 
to foreign missionary bishops. It directed that " the House 
of Clerical and Lay Deputies may, from time to time, on 
nomination by the House of Bishops, elect a suitable person 

* See Appendix, No. V. 

+ Viz. the II., XXIII., XXXII., XXXV., LIV. of 1832; the IV. of 1841; 
and the II. of 1 835. See Appendix, No. V. 



GENERAL CONVENTION OP 1844. 429 

or persons to be a bishop or bishops of this Church, to exer- 
cise episcopal functions in any missionary station or stations 
of this Church, out of the territory of the United States, 
which the House of Bishops, with the concurrence of the 
House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, may have desig- 
nated."* 

Under this canon, the bishops nominated and the depu- 
ties elected the Rev. Horatio Southgate as missionary 
bishop in Turkey, the Rev. William J. Boone, as missionary 
bishop in China, with the title of " Bishop of Amoy,"t and 

* See Appendix for the remaining clauses. 

t Bishop Boone sailed for his interesting field of labour on the I5th of De- 
cember. The following account of some parting services, &c., is taken from 
the Philadelphia "Episcopal Recorder." 

" Fareircll Missionarij Meeting. — This meeting was held on Sunday evening, 
the 8th December, in St. George's church, the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of Virginia 
presiding. 

" There were present also the Bishops of Ohio, Kentucky, and Georgia, the 
Missionary Bishops to China and Turkey, all the Missionaries to China, and a 
large number of the clergy of our Church, and an overflowing congregation. 

" After prayers by the Bishop of Kentucky, the Bishop of Virginia stated the 
object of the meeting, and with affectionate earnestness commended the cause 
of Missions to all present. 

" The Rev. P. P. Irving, as Secretary and General Agent of the Foreign 
Committee, then stated that he was about to present to the Mission the instruc- 
tions which they, as the constituted representatives of the Church, had adopted at 
a meeting recently held, and which were signed by the Bishop of Virginia, 
then present and presiding. 

"The instructions were then read to the missionaries, and were listened to 
by the audience with great attention. As these instructions will doubtless be 
published at length in the ' Recorder,' your readers will be able to judire for 
themselves as to their character. 

" The circumstances under which this mission is sent out, with a chief pas- 
tor at its head, the interest it has excited in the Church throughout the country, 
the importance of the field, and the numbers to be engaged in it, as well as the 
state of feeling and sentiment within our borders, were all, we trust, considered 
by the Foreign Committee in the preparation of their instructions. After an 
experience of nine years, they have given the Church a transcript of the prin- 
ciples and polity on which its missions will be conducted, so far as committed to 



430 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the Rev. Alexander Glennie as missionary bishop in 
Western Africa ; with suitable salaries. The latter gentle- 
man declined the appointment, and the two first were con- 
secrated in St. Peter's church, a few days after the close of 
the Convention. 

The Rev. George W. Freeman, D.D., was also elected to 
the south-western missionary district (including Texas) 
south of 36^"^ parallel of latitude, and Bishop Polk's juris- 
diction limited to the diocess of Louisiana, which had 

them for the future, and the voice of the Church will decide whether to ap- 
prove or condemn them. 

" The Missionary Bishop to China then addressed the meeting upon the re- 
ligious and social condition of the Chinese, and made a most interesting and 
powerful appeal to the Church to sustain and enlarge this promising mission. 

" The Bishop of Ohio, in a short and forcible appeal, urged on all the mem- 
bers of Christ's Church the duty of consecrating themselves to the work of 
spreading the Gospel, though all were not privileged to bear its glad tidings as 
Christ's ambassadors. This deeply interesting and important meeting was 
closed by the benediction from the Bishop of Virginia. 

" Embarkation of the Missionaries. — The Rt. Rev. Dr. Boone, Mrs. Boone 
and son ; the Rev. Mr. Woods, Mrs. Woods ; the Rev. Mr. Graham, Mrs. Gra- 
ham ; Miss Gillett, Miss Jones, and Miss Morse, with the Chinese teacher and 
attendant, sailed from New York in the ship Horatio, Capt. Wood, on Saturday 
the 15th December. 

" They were accompanied by several of the clergy and many friends in the 
ship to the lower bay. Before parting, all were assembled in the cabin and 
united in singing the beautiful hymn, ' Blest be the tie that binds,' after which 
the rector of St. George's offered appropriate prayers. 

"The Bishop of China briefly addressed all present, affectionately exhorting 
them to prepare for a future meeting in that world where parting would be un- 
known ; and was followed by the Rev. Dr. Boyd [the catholic-hearted divine 
and scholar of St. John's, Philadelphia, whose daughter is the wife of one of 
the missionaries], in words full of comfort to friends about to part, while he re- 
cited to them the precious promises of the word of God. 

" The Bishop pronounced the benediction, and we then bade each other fare- 
well; and as the vessel receded from us we could see them smiling through 
their tears, as the favouring wind wafted this beautiful missionary ship with 
its precious burden toward its distant haven. May God's blessing go with 
them!" 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1844. 431 

greatly increased in importance since his appointment in 
1841.* 

The number of clergymen in the north-western mission- 
ary territory (under Bishop Kemper) having increased to 
twenty-seven, Missouri (in which were now twelve) had by 
her own action become an independent diocess, and had 
elected the Rev. Cicero S. Hawks to the episcopal office ; 
which separation and election was confirmed by the General 
Convention, and Mr. Hawks, with the bishops elect of the 
newly-formed diocesses of New Hampshire and Alabama, 
were consecrated at Philadelphia during the conventional 
session. 

The Convention refused to ratify the election of the Rev. 
Dr. Francis L. Hawks, to the newly-formed diocess of Mis- 
sissippi, on the ground of unsettled difficulties between that 
gentleman and the contractors of some seminary buildings 
in Long Island (who opposed his election), and referred the 
matter back to the diocesan convention of Mississippi. An 
incompetency to conduct business involving complicated 
money transactions was evidently the sole foundation of 
Dr. Hawks's difficulties, and the impediment to his long 
looked-for elevation to the episcopal bench communicated 
the strongest mortification and disappointment to his nu- 
merous friends ! Whether with or without the mitre, Dr. 
Hawks is incomparably superior in fiery eloquence and 
general talents to any other ecclesiastic in the United 
States. 

The following letter from Dr. Jarvis was communicated 
to the Upper House by Bishop Kemper : — 

* Since the previous Convention in 1841, five new parishes had been added 
in Louisiana, the number of clergy had increased to eleven, and 3000 dollars 
had been contributed within the diocess to benevolent objects. " In the city of 
New Orleans," reported Bishop Polk, " two or three new parishes might be 
immediately organised, and church edifices soon after erected." The bishop's 
residence is now at Thibodoux, where he owns a large estate. 



432 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" Philadelphia, Oct. 2, 1844. 
"Right Rev. Fathers in God, 
" Encouraged by your approbation of his labours at the 
last General Convention, your Historiographer proceeded to 
prepare for the press his ' Chronological Introduction to the 
History of the Church.' 

" The disastrous condition of our country at that time 
delayed the publication, and finally induced the author to 
go to England, that the work might be stereotyped there, 
and be published simultaneously in both countries. 

" This measure has been eminently successful, and he is 
now enabled to lay before you a proof copy, hastily pre- 
pared the day before he sailed, for your inspection. 

" If, after due examination, you, Right Reverend Fathers, 
shall be pleased to continue your approbation, y^ur Histori- 
ographer begs leave to express the hope that a joint com- 
mittee of both houses may be appointed to confer with him 
as to its publication, and the future progress of his Ecclesi- 
astical History. 

" He has the honour to remain, 
Right Reverend Fathers, 

Your faithful son and servant, 
S. Farmer Jarvis, 
Historiographer of the Church." 

Dr. Jarvis's suggestion was promptly and unanimously 
acted upon, and Bishops Whittingham, Doane, and Hop- 
kins, were appointed a committee on the part of the Upper 
Chamber. 

Rumours having been long rife touching the tendency 
of the instructions, and the practices of the students in 
the General Theological Seminary (which was charged by 
the " low church" partisans with being under " tractarian" 
influence), a formal investigation was made by the bishops 



GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1844- 433 

in reference to both points, which resulted in a complete 
vindication of the professors of any departure from the 
orthodox standards of the Church in tlieir teachings, or in 
the selection of books used in the seminary ; and the 
" popish" practices of the students — the alleged " penances," 
" seven prayer hours," " severe vigils," " image worship," 

" midnight masses," &-c. &c., resolved themselves into 

a cross in the chancel of the seminary chapel, and an earl)'- 
morning service on Christmas-day, "conducted according 
to the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Uni- 
ted States of America !" 

The mountain was delivered of a mouse, and the gaping 
spectators discovered they had been made the dupes of a 
miserable party intrigue. Like Oxford, the New York 
Seminary has its vigilant friends, whose favourite amuse- 
ment is 

"To watch at Mary's porch, and well count out 
Those bad young Sophs who dare to be devout." 

It is scarcely worthy of record, in connexion with this 
movement, that a querulous member from Ohio endeav- 
oured, by a "motion," to draw the house of deputies into 
the Puseyite controversy ; but the poor gentleman utterly 
failed. His " resolution"* was negatived, and the house de- 
cided by a vote of twenty-five diocesses to two,— 

* " Wh&reas the minds of many of the members of this Church, throughout 
its Union, are sorely grieved and perplexed by the alleged introduction among 
them of serious errors in doctrine and practice, having their origin in certain 
writings emanating chiefly from members of the University of Oxford in Eng- 
lan<l ; and whereas it is exceedingly desirable that the minds of such persons 
should be calmed, their anxieties allayed, and the Church disabused of the 
charge of holding, in her articles and offices, doctrines and uractices consistent 
with all the views and opinions expressed in said Oxford writings, and should 
llius be freed from a responsibility which does not properly belong to herj 
therefore, — 

28 



434 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

'•' That the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies consider 
the Liturgy, Offices, and Articles of the Church, sufficient 
exponents of her sense of the essential doctrines of Holy 
Scripture ; and that the Canons of the Church afford ample 
means of discipline and correction from all who depart from 
her standards. 

" And further, that the General Convention is not a suit- 
able tribunal for the trial and censure of, and that the 
Church is not responsible for, the errors of individuals, 
whether they are members of this Church or otherwise." 

With which sop the " popery" bitten minority had to re- 
turn home to their constituents ; and the presbyterian prints, 
which stood ready with their paper-artillery charged and 
primed, waiting for the result of this momentous discussion, 
which was to split and divide the Church (like their own 
headless sect), instantly discharged their fiercest volleys of 
editorial invective against the Convention, and the " de- 
nomination" it represented, which they pronounced " Pusey- 
ite to the core," "popish in spirit as well as practice," 
&c. (fee. 

" Resolved, That the House of Bishops be respectfully requested to commu- 
nicate with this House on this subject, and to take such order thereon as the 
nature and magnitude of the evil alluded to may seem to them to require." 



CHAPTER LXIL 

EPISCOPAL CHANGES. — THE BISHOP OF PENNSYLVANIA'S 
RESIGNATION. THE BISHOP OF NEW YORK's TRIAL. 

At the close of this important Convention, the two 
houses, as is customary, met to hear the Pastoral Letter, 
which was read by Bishop Chase, and in a manner the 
most impressive and dignified. He thus reverted to the 
changes in the episcopate : — 

" Since our last Pastoral Letter to you, our Heavenly 
Father has seen fit, in his mysterious providence, to take 
from us two of our number, — our venerable presiding brother 
of the Eastern diocess, and the no less highly esteemed 
Bishop of Virginia. 

" Very worthy persons having succeeded in their respect- 
ive diocesses, the tears which their deaths occasioned were 
in a measure dispersed by the hand of divine mercy, which 
often strikes but to heal. 

" The association of states which had composed the East- 
ern diocess, over which the Right Rev. Alexander V. Gris- 
wold presided, has, by his death, been dissolved, and three 
others consecrated to take the pastoral charge of separate 
portions of the same flock, viz. the Rev. Doctors Manton 
Eastburn, over Massachusetts ; J. P. K. Henshaw, over 
Rhode Island ; and Carlton Chase, over New Hampshire. 

" Thus the spirit of heaviness at the loss of our senior 
bishop has been exchanged for the 'garmentof praise ;' and 
the same may be truly said of Virginia. In the place of 



436 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

inoiuning for good Bishop Moore, the oil of joy has bright- 
ened the face of that beloved diocess, and caused all hearts 
to rejoice in the consecration of the Rev. Dr. John Johns to 
be the assistant-bishop, and the elevation of the Right Rev. 
William Meade, D.D., to be bishop of that diocess. Two 
other bishops have been consecrated during this Conven- 
tion, viz. the Rev. Nicholas H. Cobbs, to fill the episcopate 
of Alabama, and Cicero S. Hawks that of Missouri. Thus 
are we comforted in announcing to you the decease of our 
beloved brother-prelates. As with Elijah and Elisha of old, 
the mantles of those whom God hath taken to himself, we 
trust, have fallen on others whom He hath left with us. 

"The members of our communion, in all places of our 
extensive country, have cause for fervent gratitude to the 
Great Head of the Church in Heaven, that, by the mighty 
power of his Holy Spirit, the present Convention of a por- 
tion of his Church here on earth hath been overruled for 
good, and has concluded in great peace ; especially in that 
He hath inclined the hearts of the members thereof to 
elect, with great unanimity, a missionary bishop for Ar- 
kansas, and other territories of the United States, who is 
likewise to exercise supervision over our missions in Texas ; 
and also three brother-bishops to spread abroad in foreign 
lands the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord." 

At the close of the Pastoral Letter, which was listened to 
in the deepest silence, the two houses united in singing the 
Gloria in Excelsis, and joining in a prayer by the pre- 
siding bishop, who then lifted up his venerable hands and 
pronounced the apostolic benediction. 

The first three named of the additions to the episcopal 
ranks, mentioned in the Pastoral Letter, received their con- 
secration on Sunday, October the 20th, when the unusual 
spectacle was presented of nineteen bishops, full robed, 
around the altar of that sacred edifice ; an altar at which 



EPISCOPAL CHANGES. 437 

William White had officiated during the whole of his long 
episcopate. The scene was invested with iniconimon in- 
terest, from the reflection that the prelates there assembled 
would in a short time be spread again over a continent, 
engaged in their apostolic duties, and the three candidates 
be themselves stationed at such opposite points of labour. 

Amongst the other acts of the House of Bishops at this 
Convention, was that of ratifying an act of the Pennsyl- 
vania Church, in accepting the resignation of its aged 
bishop. Dr. Onderdonk had tendered his resignation on 
the ground of ill-health, which his statement accompany- 
ing the resignation shewed to have afflicted him from the 
earliest date of his episcopate. The severe labours at- 
tending his visitation journeys, commenced long after he 
had passed middle life, attended by a total change of 
habits, with the accompaniments of ague and other epi- 
demic attacks, common in many parts of Pennsylvania, 
required medical remedies incompatible with the nature of 
his incessant duties. The case of Bishop Onderdonk, who 
had accepted his laborious post very reluctantly, excited 
warm sympathy amongst his nearest friends. Twenty- 
eight of the Convention refused to accept his resignation, 
and proposed the election of a suffragan ; especially as less 
than half of the clergy attended the Convention to which 
the resignation was made. Bishop Onderdonk is the au- 
thor of " Episcopacy tested by Scripture," " The Causes of 
Unbelief," " The Atonement," and other tracts, whose repu- 
tation, for the compass of mind and strength of reasoning 
which they discover, is as high in Britain (where the first- 
named treatise has had three editions) as in the United 
States. He has, also, stood alone in advocating the ecclesi- 
astical prohibitions of unscriptural marriages ; which it is, 
perhaps, new to the English reader to learn, are very com- 
mon in America, extending to marriages with wives' sis- 



438 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

ters. Dr. Onderdonk, in an able pamphlet on this delicate 
subject, recommends tlie restoration of the entire English 
table, which was rejected by the compilers of the American 
Prayer-book. The public opinion, he argues, which toler- 
ates such connexions, will in time sanction closer alliances. 
This question is one which certainly belongs to the Church ; 
and is another of those matters which were left amongst 
tlie " unfinished business " in the first stage of her legisla- 
tion. 

Another event of a most painful character followed the 
sitting of the Convention, which it is the historian's duty 
(though reluctantly performed) to record. I shall do no 
more. The Bishop of New York was charged by a clergy- 
man, formerly of his diocess, with whom he had had a 
disagreement,* with having made improper advances to 
four females — the affidavits of two (sisters) being prepared 
by him : and on the accused's presentment to the presiding 
bishop, by the canonical number of prelates, he took his 
trial in New York. After a long sitting, amidst the greatest 
excitement without, the Court, on the evidence before them, 
convicted the bishop, and passed a sentence of suspension 
from the exercise of episcopal functions. The acquitting 
judges, in the persons of the Bisliops of Western New York, 
New Jersey, Maiyland, North Carolina, Georgia, and the 
North Western Territory, entered on the official journals of 
the Court their protest against the sentence, founded on the 
trivial nature of the charges ; the character of the wit- 
nesses, as exhibited by their equivocal and conflicting testi- 
mony ; their (admitted) friendship and professed regard for 
the accused several years after the alleged freedoms ; his 

* The Rev. James C. Richmond, whom the bishop thwarted in a project to 
obtain episcopal consecration from the British primates ; or, failing here, from 
the Eastern bishops. Bishop Onderdonk addressed private notes to Drs. How- 
ley, Skinner, Beresford, &c., which brought Mr. Richmond home. 



THE BISHOP OF NEW YORk's TRIAL. 439 

own unblemished cliaracter during a long ministerial ca- 
reer ; and, principally, the manner in which the "evidence" 
was collected. The Bishop of Michigan, the only prelate 
who was absent from the bench, has been, meanwhile, 
invited by the standing committee to perform temporary 
duty in the extensive diocess of New York. 



CHAPTER LXIII. 

BISHOP CHASE AND JUBILEE COLLEGE. 

Those of my readers whose sympathies have been en- 
listed by the history of Bishop Chase's early episcopal 
labours in Ohio, narrated in a former part of these reminis- 
cences, will, doubtless, feel interested in a passing sketch 
of his later efforts in the same cause, in Illinois : the cause 
of ministerial education, and youthful training in the prin- 
ciples of the Church. 

On taking charge of his new diocess, he lost no time in 
addressing himself to this important object. The language 
of his first address to the public, after entering on the duties 
of his see, exhibits the spirit of the man, — 

" What doth the Lord, the Great Head of the Church, 
require of me ? and how shall his glory be promoted by my 
feeble efforts ? While, like David, I have nothing save 
the truth as it is in Jesus, may I not, like him, trust in that 
truth alone to hurl destruction in the face of the great 
Goliath of Gatli, who now presents himself in the valley of 
the Mississippi, defying the armies of Israel ? But the 
scrip and the sling are wanting. Give me, therefore, but 
an episcopal school in Illinois, and the great enemy whom 
the pope and his Austrian allies have sent among us, with 
all his boasting blasphemies, will fall to the ground as 
did Goliath, and the religion of the Son of David shall 
triumph. 

"This school, the Lord being my helper, shall be 



BISHOP CHASE AND JUBILEE COLLEGE. 441 

B'ouNDED. It shall be raised and shall stand ; that unto it 
all who are on the Lord's side may flee, and in which they 
may prepare for battle." 

" This question," wu'ites a western missionary priest, " thus 
presented, and so solved, may be regarded as an exponent 
of all that followed. An institution of religion and Icani- 
ing must be had, and, under God, one should be had. 
This full realization of the responsibility which his appoint- 
ment to the episcopate rolled upon him, — and an unwavering 
determination, under God, to discharge it, — can alone throw 
light upon the privations, sacrifices, and toils, of the Bishop 
of Illinois. Having yielded to this responsibility, he has 
not shrunk from its discharge." 

In 1839 the corner-stone of the chapel and school-house 
of Jubilee College (significant title !) was laid by Bishop 
Chase, being thirteen years from the laying of Kenyon 
College, and Rosse chapel, in Ohio. " Its nature," said the 
bishop, in his address on that occasion, "is theological; 
its end is the salvation of the souls of men by means of a 
Christian education. It is to be a school of the 
PROPHETS : ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are to 
be trained there. This is its jrri^nart/ object, and without 
attaining this, it fails of its end ; which end, therefore, is 
never to be ' merged ' in any other. Persons of all liberal 
professions in the arts and sciences are also to be educated 
here, provided they be ivilling to be taught the religion of 
the God of Christians, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the 
Eloim, the Jehovah. All things being conducted accord- 
ing to the well-known principles and worship of the ' Pro- 
testant Episcopal' Church of the United States of America, 
the desiffu and will of the donors and founders of this insti- 
tulion will be answered, and not otherwise.''^ 

Without going through the history of Bishop Chase's ap- 
peals, journeyings, and personal labours, to obtain an ample 



412 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

investment for his college, sufficient to put the institution on 
a solid and permanent foundation, whicli would fill a vol- 
ume, it is due to the generous donors of land to put their 
names on record in this place. Of a tract of 4000 acres of 
excellent land, now belonging to Jubilee College, 3160 were 
selected, purchased, and entered by the bishop, with money 
collected in the United States and England (in, I believe, 
about equal proportions) ; 320 acres were given by Messrs. 
Imlay and Beach, of Hartford, Connecticut ; 160 acres 
by Mr. Ebenezer Rhoads, of Boston ; 160 acres by Dr. 
M'K night, of Washington ; 80 acres by Mr. John Kinzie, 
of Chicago. 

The bishop wisely obtained a security against the diver- 
sion of the college property to uses foreign to the intention 
of the donors and his own, as well as against all the other 
evils which had followed his previous foundation of Ken- 
yon, both in his manner of settling the property, and in the 
laws for the internal government of the schools. Knowing 
that the holders of fiduciary trusts are invariably more alive 
to a sense of their obligations than trustees under charters 
obtained from the state legislature, from the greater facil- 
ity of reaching them ivhen their trust is violated, he con- 
fined himself to a simple deed of trust, setting forth the 
conditions in his address, on laying the corner-stone of Ju- 
bilee College ; " which becomes." writes one of his advisers, 
^'•ipso facto the deed in virtue of which the Church is 
made the owner of the property for the uses and purposes 
therein set forth ; and, in the event of his death, it will be- 
come de jure the deed of trust, and as such may be proved 
in any court having jurisdiction in such cases. The diver- 
sion or alienation of the property to any other than the pur- 
poses therein avowed, cannot occur in any supposable con- 
tingency. Every measure has been taken by Bishop Chase 



DISSENTING TOLERATION. 443 

to preserve inviolate, and carry into effect, the wills of the 
donors and the intention of the founder." 

This writer, however, thus qualifies this assertion in an- 
other reference to the same subject, — '' So long as faith pre- 
vails in the Church, or law reigns in the land." 

Another most important reason for preferring the deed of 
trust to a charter is found in the rule of the legislature of 
Illinois, to grant no charters for institutions of learning with- 
out a prohibitory clause, that " nothing sectarian should be 
taught !" Thus in the charters of Illinois College, and four 
others, it is provided, that " nothing herein contained shall 
authorise the establishment of a theological department in 
said college." In the charter of Shilo College, in the same 
state, a provision is inserted, that " the said institution shall 
be open to all religious denominations, and the profession 
of no particular religious faith shall be required of either 
officers or pupils" (! !) ; while in that of Chatham college, in 
the same state (a manual labour school), the anti-" secta- 
rian" legislature, wishing to carry out the " voluntary" prin- 
ciple to its fullest extent, require that " no religious doctrine 
peculiar to any one sect of Christians shall be inculcated 
by any professor in said school ; but said institution shall at 
all times be conducted upon free, liberal, and enlightened 
principles." 

" Free, liberal, and enlightened," with a vengeance ! The 
legislators of Illinois ought to know that the Church Epis- 
copal is no "sect;" and she claims exemption from these 
provisions on the twofold ground — first, of having never 
called herself a " sect," which, in all the formularies, laws 
and standards of the Church, is repeatedly disclaimed ; 
secondly, and principalli/, as being, from the character of 
those laws a?id for?jmlaries, as well as in her essential doc- 
triiies, incompetent to coalesce with the sects. 

This rule of the legislature of Illinois affords to the En- 



444 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

glish Churchman an example of the kind of toleration we, 
in Britain, may expect from a " liberal" legislative body, in 
which dissenting influence has any preponderance of influ- 
ence. I point the attention of my countrymen to it — espe- 
cially of those baptized members of England's Catholic 
Church, who. unmindful of her rights and their own re- 
sponsibilities as her children, would undermine her bulwarks 
(not her original foundation, that " standeth sure,") by neg- 
lecting her provisions at a time when their observance is 
necessary for her very existence as a national institution ; 
of those who scruple not to join the rabid pack which raise 
the cry of " popery," " Puseyism," and " innovation," at all 
who minister at her altars conformably with those provis- 
ions. The legislature of Illinois, in thus prescribing reli- 
gious opinion, " seems," in the words of a citizen of that 
state, " to have been guided by a rule, which not only ren- 
ders them guiltless of protecting any religious institution, as 
such, but even innocent of toleration." 

After nine years' occupancy of his see, we find Bishop 
Chase more than fulfilling the expectations, and meriting in 
a still higher degree the tribute of Bishop Doane, on the 
occasion of his resuming his seat in the House of Bishops 
in 1835, — ^" A veteran soldier, a bishop of the cross, whom 
hardships never have discouraged, whom no difficulties seem 
to daunt ; he [had] entered upon his new campaign with all 
the chivalry of thirty-five." The Herculean labours of 
these nine years had, however, made serious inroads on the 
physical powers of the bishop. Wearisome travels over the 
wide territory of the United States, and another voyage to 
England in the prosecution of his object, added to constant 
personal superintendence of the works when at home, 
showed their effects on his frame, on the occasion of his 
visit to Philadelphia, to preside as senior prelate at the great 
council of the Church, the duties of which office were no 



BISHOP CHASE AND JUBILEE COLLEGE. 445 

sooner closed than he again addressed himself to the great 
object of his closing life. Never shall I forget the affecting 
character of his appeals on this occasion ; gathering np his 
strength, as it seemed, for a final effort to secure, if possible, 
the consummation of his darling object before his departure 
from the world. On one of these occasions I assisted in 
the altar service at my friend Quinan's church (the Evan- 
gelists), and accompanied the bishop to his host's residence 
after the service. The feebleness of limb which made his 
journey from the carriage to the vestr}' a painful process, 
and required our united support to enable him to mount a 
very steep staircase, did not prevent him from employing a 
whole liour in an appeal to the congregation on behalf of 
Jubilee. His public addresses on the occasion of this visit 
were nearly all of the same character. After giving a 
sketch of his labours and their results* he adopted the fol- 
lowing mode of appeal : — 

* The following shews how the estate stood at the time of this appeal of the 
bishop's. 

The sums of money received by Bishop Chase from England and America 
amount in the gross to 37,530 dollars. The lands in fee-simple owned by the 
college comprises a little within 4000 acres, well proportioned in reference to 
timber and pasture. About 500 acres are well fenced, and 150 under cultiva- 
tion, from which the college already receives a considerable portion of what it 
consumes upon its table. 

The domain around the immediate vicinity of the college site is ''unsurpassed 
both for beauty and salubrity, agreeably diversified, and well supplied with the 
purest water. There are also inexhaustible beds of bituminous coal, of the 
liiiest quality, within a distance of one-fourth of a mile, from which the college 
receives its daily supply of fuel." 

The buildings are the Chapel and School House, of stone, entirely completed, 
liaving, exclusive of the chapel, two school-rooms, with dormitories above. 
This building constitutes, in part, the south front of the contemplated quad- 
rangle. The west wing, also of stone, 27 by 83, is entirely closed in, and the 
joiners are now engaged in laying the floor and finishing the inside. The Col- 
lege Hall, two stories exclusive of the attic; entirely finished. The lower 
story is occupied for culinary purposes ; the remainder for dormitories. Jubi- 



446 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

" I am required — it seems I am expected — to spread the 
Gospel, through the blessing of God on the ministry of our 
Apostolic Church, in the diocess of Illinois, which is larger 
than all England, without the clergy necessary to such an 
end ! And whence, dear hearers, can these be obtained ? 
We cannot get them from the Atlantic states. All you 

lee Cottage, main building three stories high. This building is, and will con- 
tinue to be, occupied by the female department, until the west wing of the 
quadrangle is completed. A Professor's House, entirely finished. This was the 
first building erected on the hill, and at a time when labour and all materials 
commanded the highest price. A Brick Dwelling for students in divinity, com- 
pletely furnished, containing four rooms. A Warehouse, two stories high, 16 
by 28, entirely finished. (The goods in store here are sold at a reasonable profit 
for the sole benefit of the college. A Saw-Mill, with thirty acres of land at- 
tached; cost originally 1600 dollars; but failing to furnish lumber in sufficient 
quantity to meet the wants of the college, was repaired at an expense of 800 
dollars. "The repairs," says the Report, "were of a permanent character, 
consisting of Parker's patent wheel, of massive cast-iron, wcighino- upward of 
26 cwt., and heavy and durable timbers. ' But with all the additional expenses, 
the saw-mill brings in more than the interest of the money it cost, and will 
eventually pay for itself" A Barn, 36 by 24, having stables in the basement, 
and a granary and scaffolds for hay above. Also an additional one, 20 by 24, 
containing carriage-house, stables, &c., in course of erection. 

In addition to the foregoing improvements, the college owns, — of live stock, 
four horses, constantly engaged in the service of the college; eight cows and 
some smaller stock ; a flock of about six hundred and fifty sheep, the wool of 
which is sent to the east, manufactured on shares, and sold for the benefit of 
the college. 

" The farming interest as yet," says the Report, " from the limited scale on 
which it has been necessarily conducted, has been attended with but little profit. 
The common labourers and teams have been employed upon the farm only when 
not needed in preparing and hauling materials for building ; but when it can 
be made a more direct branch of business, a larger amount of lands brought 
into cultivation, and the stock increased, it cannot fail to bring in large re- 
turns." 

The library of the college (constantly augmenting) now makes near two 
thousand volumes, and the bishop's generous friends in England have presented 
to the chapel a superb set of communion plate, including one flagon, two pa- 
tens, and two chalices, valued at seventy pounds ; with mounted maps, charts, 
&c., ancient and modern. 



BISHOP CHASE AND JUBILEE COLLEGE. 447 

here educate are engaged before they cross the mountains. 
Hence resuUs the necessity of training up our clergy in the 
West. iSofis of the soilj'^ exclaimed the speaker, with ener- 
gy, — " S071S of the soil must cultivate the wide-spreading 
fields in the West, Grounded in this truth, Kenyon College 
was built in years that are past and gone, and now, Jubilee 
College, five hundred miles further westward, is rising on 
the same basis of undeniable truth : the necessity of educa- 
ting in the West, Weste?m labourers. But whence are to 
be obtained pupils devoted to the priesthood ? The rich, 
who only are enabled to pay, will not send their children 
for that purpose. We turn then to those who are less 
wealthy. But here, alas ! we find few who are able to pay 
the stipend, small as it is, for their sons' expenses at college. 
Not one out of many whom we could obtain, can pay a 
hundred dollars per annum. This accounts for the paucity 
of our members. We have, indeed, six candidates for holy 
orders ; but the number of classical students is altogether 
too small to supply the wants of the diocess, 

" We must, then, have scholarships established in Jubilee 
College corresponding to the vast demand, or it is more than 
idle to boast of success. We are not now in ' the full tide 
of successful experiment.' 'Tis true we have a college out 
of debt (kept so by a long course of self-denial), but the 
fact of its being so adds pain to the pang, that, through 
the want of liberality and a sense of justice in our Church 
people, so little good comes of all our pains. Thus op- 
pressed, I feel as the children of Israel felt when ' they were 
required to make bricks without straw.' I feel as my hired 
servants would feel were I to send them into the field with- 
out implements of husbandry wherewithal to plough the 
stubborn ground, to scatter the choice seed, or gather the 
golden harvest, and yet demand of them that my barns be 



448 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

filled with grain ! In such a case I ought to take shame to 
myself, instead of blaming them. 

" Be assured, Christian friends, that Illinois resembles — 
too nearly resembles — a baronial manor endowed by the 
God of nature with the richest soil, yet ruined for want of 
labourers to till it. The weeds of spiritual blindness and 
vice are at this moment every where growing and increas- 
ing. The trees of God's planting are not watered. The 
tender flowers of our vast prairies, full of Christian fra- 
grance, are seen, for want of timely care, every where to 
wither and die. 

" And is it always to be so ? Is there no end to this long 
road of stumbling by reason of the darkness of despair? 
When, oh, when will it be morning to the aged, weary 
labourer in the field of Christ, now soliciting your kind at- 
tentions ? Are the sects and parties, ever embittered against 
each other, as they all are and always are against the Church, 
for ever to trample under foot every tender blade trans- 
planted from the East? Is there never to be a struggle 
made to seek the lost sheep ? — not ' one,^ for instance, of 
the ten thousand laml)s whom deceitful men have decoyed 
from the English fold into the fangs of the wolves of Nau- 
voo? Are the disciples of Joe Smith, now enraged by his 
murder ; are the Romanists, always dangerous to the state, 
because they owe their allegiance to a foreign prince ; are 
these jarring extremes, error and schism, to take eternal 
possession of the prairies of Illinois? and is the primitive 
Church of Christ destined, by your neglect, to possess there- 
on no dwelling-place ? — and all for the want of a few scholar- 
ships given to an institution of acknowledged merit ; now 
ready to teach all who are sent to her care on terms of un- 
exampled cheapness? 

"Bear with me, I beseech you, a little further. There is 
another view, which should never be taken but in extreme 



BISHOP CHASE AND JUBILEE COLLEGE. 449 

cases, when the glory of God and the success of his cause 
require it, and that is, to mention what one's self has done, 
by way of inciting others to good deeds. Do I wish to 
dwell at ease when exhorting others to work ? Do I einicii 
myself and family while I make you poor by demanding 
your assistance? Let the answer to these questions be 
read in the history of my whole life. Look at the congre- 
gations which were founded by my unworthy hand in the 
western parts of New York, in the city of New Orleans, in 
Ohio, and in Illinois ! Who, in these various places, will 
tell you that I sought ' the^eece and not the flock?' Have 
I ever received anything as a salary since a bishop, from 
either or both of my diocesses, of sufficient value in all to 
maintain my family for one or even a half of a year ! With 
regard to both I can truly say, as did Samuel to all Israel, 
' Behold here I am ; witness against me before the Lord. 
Whose ox have I taken ? whom have I defrauded ? or of 
whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine eyes 
therewith?' And with the Apostle I can say, 'These 
hands have ministered to my necessities.' But the time 
has come when I can do so no longer. Nearly threescore 
years and ten — spent nearly all in the service of the Church, 
planting her banners in those places where few else would 
go — have now ' brought down my strength in the journey' 
of life. The knees which were once strong are now feeble, 
and the hands which once directed and sustained others 
need to be held up by benevolent friends. 

" I come before you, then, with the permission of your 
worthy pastor, as a pleader for your countrymen in the 
west. The relation I have long borne to it — I say it with- 
out egotism — as its father and friend, emboldens me, not 
to ' ask an alms,' but to stir up your minds, my brethren, by 
way of remembrance, to pay a debt long since due. I ask 
eighty-six scholarships for Jubilee College, having obtained 

29 



450 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

fourteen already in coming- here. I ask other sums, small 
and great, to enable me to complete the work which God 
has given me to do before I die." 

This and similar appeals were promptly responded to by 
the Church's friends in Philadelphia. One thousand six 
hundred and sixty-six dollars, the sum necessary for a pro- 
fessorship, were subscribed before Bishop Chase left the 
city ; one-sixth being the contribution of a lady.* At the 
conclusion of the above address, numbers of the congrega- 
tion pressed forward to the altar with their gifts ; and the 
hand of the " aged, weary labourer," who then took his 
place near the chancel-rails to receive the greetings of his 
friends, was pressed by many, who felt too truly while 
offering up the silent prayer for many more days to their 
most loved, as well as " most reverend," father, that, in all 
human probability, they should " see his face no more " in 
the flesh. 

As the fact, now fully proved in the past half-century's 
history, is undeniable, that the voluntary contributions of 
the friends of religion, in a Church-endowed and tithe-pay- 
ing country, are on a far larger scale (even admitting the 
disproportion of means) than in one in which voluntaryism 
is established by law, it may, perhaps, assist in forwarding 
this last great effort of the American bishop to remind 
many liberal souls who have not yet contributed towards 
the cause of ministerial education in the west, that " the 
past conduct of Bishop Chase (to adopt the words of one 
of his presbyters) inspires future confidence that, whatever 
funds may be entrusted to him for the completion of Jubi- 
lee College, will be judiciously and economically expended 
in furtherance of the object." It is one not undeserving the 
notice of English Christians, from the multitude of emi- 
grants who annually leave our shores for the western terri- 
* Mrs. Kohne, a liberal benefactress to the Church. 



TRIBUTE TO BISHOP CHASE. 451 

tory of America ; to say nothing of those who drop down 
from Canada into the United States. 

The same writer adds : — " Long acquaintance with Bishop 
Chase, an intimate knowledge of his plans, while they 
enable him to speak, entitle him to a hearing. For twenty 
years he has known him in his seasons of adversity as 
well as prosperity ; he has been with him when his most 
cherished expectations have been blasted — his fondest hopes 
crushed : and yet in all this the writer has seen no faltering 
— no distrust. ' Jehovah-jireh ' has been his watchword, 
and it has been embodied forth in renewed exertions and 
greater efforts. Recognizing and owning the obligations 
which his station in the Church imposed upon him, he has 
not failed to discharge them, whether they procured for 
him ' good or evil report.' The servant of the Church, he 
has regarded not his own but her welfare. A steward in 
the household of Christ, he has counted nothing as his 
own, but used it as a talent for which he must render an 
account. Without any salary or stated income from any 
source whatever, Bishop Chase has laboured with his own 
hands for the support of himself and family. During the 
year ending June, 1843, he received from his diocess the 
sum of one hundred and seventy-nine dollars, scarce the 
fourth part of his travelling expenses for the same time. 
Instead of realizing anything from his landed property, it is 
a source of expense to him. All of his available means 
have been consumed in his current expenses. But these 
sacrifices and privations have been and still are endured by 
himself and his family with patience and resignation, 
while they in any way enable him to build up the college. 
Of these sacrifices and privations the writer might enu- 
merate many instances ; but though related wnth all fidelity, 
they could be scarcely appreciated unless actually beheld. 
From first to last the founding and rearing up of Jubilee 



452 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

College has been but one scene of unremitting labour and 
self-denial to Bishop Chase and his pious and devoted 
family. Will not the Church, then, again respond to the 
call of the diocess of Illinois, made through her bishop? 
He seems in an especial manner, in the providence of God, 
to have been singled out as one through whom the Church 
of the blessed Saviour both makes the call and gives the 
response. Since, then, in the common course of events, he 
may not hereafter often repeat this call," will not the 
members of the Church of England deem it at once a duty 
and a privilege to assist in fulfilling this scheme of Provi- 
dence for the rapidly augmenting population of the western 
prairies? What English heart does not fervently respond 
to the deeply-breathed aspiration of this writer, " that 
Bishop Chase, ere he die, may see the completion 
OF Jubilee College ?" 



CHAPTER LXIV. 

CONSECRATION OF THE FOREIGN BISHOPS. BISHOP 

SOUTHGATE AND THE SYRIAN CHURCH. 

On the following Friday, (Oct. 25th,) the missionary 
bishops elect for Texas, Turkey, and China, received con- 
secration from the presiding bishop, assisted by eight other 
prelates, in St. Peter's church, of the same city. I was 
fortunate enough to get a seat near the chancel, which 
gave me a good view of this deeply interesting, never-to-be- 
forgotten ceremony. The sermon was preached by the 
Bishop of Georgia, founded on the text, " Enlarge the place 
of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine 
habitations : spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen 
thy stakes ; for thou shall break forth on the right hand 
and on the left ; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and 
make the desolate cities to be inhabited."* It was a mas- 
terly production, and correctly described by a literary critic, 
himself a finished pulpit orator,! as " one of the most beau- 
tiful and scholar-like performances heard for many a long 
day." In the course of his sermon the bishop made the 
following allusion to England, and the call for joint action 
on the part of the English and American Churches : — - 

" Since our existence as a Church, we have been per- 
mitted to witness no such exhibition of faith as that which 
now engages our attention. And if faith be the principle 

* Isaiah liv. 2, 3. 

t The Rev. William Suddards, editor of the "Episcopal Recorder." 



454 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

of the Church's growth, and the measure of the Church's 
strength, then will this day ever constitute an epoch in the 
Church's history. What England, in the fulness of her 
power, in the immensity of her resources, in the depth of 
her piety, has just begun to do for her own children, we are 
bold to imitate, not for our own children, but for the chil- 
dren of our Heavenly Father, of whatever blood and what- 
ever lineage ! Catching from her the noble spirit that has 
marked her recent efforts, or rather, I should say, drinking 
with her at the same fountain of divine inspiration, we 
have hastened to obey the injunction of our Lord and the 
practice of the apostles, and send forth men, full, as we 
trust, of faith and of the Holy Ghost, confiding to them all 
the powers which our Lord has confided to us, that they 
may lack nothing which we can confer upon them of au- 
thority, or grace, or blessing. We lay our hands upon 
them, and separate them for the work whereunto the Holy 
Ghost has called them, in full confidence that Christ will 
sustain us in our efforts and bless them in their labours — 
that he will furnish his Church with an abundance of 
treasure out of the self-denial of his faithful people, and 
fulfil to the ministry of his word his gracious promise of 
being with them always to the end of the world! Had 
Reason, with her cold, calculating spirit, been permitted to 
shape our counsels — Reason, which narrows everything to 
the sphere of sense and sight — we might have hesitated 
about the mighty labours to which we have pledged the 
Church ; but Faith was our instrument of visfion — Faith, 
which keeps before her eye one single object, the command 
of her divine Lord, and in obeying that, embraces things 
not seen, and realizes the visions of hope. Under her 
guidance we commission these, our brethren, to take pos- 
session of the kingdoms of this world, assured that they 
will one day become the kingdoms of Christ. We send 



BISHOP ELLIOTT. 455 

them forth, armed only with the Gross of Christ and tlie 
foohshness of preaching, satisfied that they will vanquish 
the philosophy and subdue the feelings of man. We look 
not at the human strength which is behind us ; we reckon 
not the hosts, nor the might, nor the associations that are 
before us. Our power depends not on the one, nor is our 
courage daunted by the other. Our trust is in the arm of 
the Lord, and we see as the prophet's servant did when his 
eyes were opened — not chariots and horses of fire — but 
what is mightier than all chariots and all horses, the fire of 
the Holy Ghost, ready to go forth with the ministers of the 
Lord and with the truth of his Christ." 

"Nor can I think that we have entered rashly into a po- 
sition which might have been more advantageously occu- 
pied by another branch of the Church of Christ. It seems 
as if God, in his wise providence, has cast upon England 
and these United States the conversion of the w^orld. None 
other of the civilized nations of the earth are in a condition 
to take any larger part in this glorious enterprise. Some 
are hindered by position, having but little maritime con- 
nexion with the rest of the world, and lacking the mission- 
ary zeal which would lead them to seek it. Others are dis- 
abled by the withering blight of rationalism from doing 
more than preserving alive upon their own altars the light 
of Gospel truth. Others, again, are overlaid by superstition 
and idolatry, and in their missionary ardour are dissemina- 
ting falsehood instead of truth, — are dealing out death in- 
stead of imparting life. With the English and American 
Churches alone are found those gifts of nature and of grace 
which make them proper, through the grace of God, to 
enter with hope and confidence upon the evangelizing of 
the world. Embodying in their liturgies and formularies, 
plainly and fully, the truths of the Gospel — preserving 
almost everything of primitive practice which was worth 



456 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

preserving, and retaining very little, if any, of its corrup- 
tioiis — organized upon the closest model of the apostolic 
times — hindered, especially among us, by very few restraints 
upon religious action, we have been evidently set apart for 
the missionary work. And the enterprise of these nations, 
and their commercial connexions and the roving spirit of 
their people, and the rapid growth of both governments, all 
indicate that God is preserving tltem, and building us up for 
this very end of spreading his Gospel among the nations of 
the earth. And, besides all this, a common lineage, and a 
common language, and a common faith, and a common 
commission, point us to the division of this work vi'ithout 
any rivalry, save the generous one of spreading the truth — 
without any jealousy, save a holy jealousy for Zion and for 
Jerusalem. Wherever our Missionaries meet, it will be as 
brother meeting brother ; souls, united by the ' one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,' will go 
out to each other in sweet communion ; and the Church 
will find that there is in her a stronger bond than that of 
interest or nature — the bond of a holy faith and a divine 
charity. 

" And just as clearly as God has marked out these two 
nations for the conversion of the world, does He seem to 
have overruled their policy in such a manner as to give the 
fullest scope to that particular form of ecclesiastical organi- 
sation which has grown up in each. An establishment, 
connected so strictly with its government as is the English 
Church, could not move in its integrity as a Church, upon 
the great Mahometan or heathen empires, without at once 
exciting political jealousy. Her bishops and ecclesiastics 
would be looked upon with a more suspicious eye even ihan 
those of Rome, inasmuch as her power is infinitely greater, 
and the claims of Rome are spiritual rather than temporal. 
"Wonderfully, therefore, has it been arranged of God, that 



BISHOP ELLIOTT. 457 

the English goveinmeut should have steadily pursued for 
ages a commercial system which has led her to plant and 
cherish colonies in many islands and on every continent. 
Empires have grown up around her emigrants in almost 
every quarter of the globe, and hundreds of millions of 
heathen — nearly one-third of the world's population — are 
linked directly with her, as subjects or dependents. Upon 
these and over these can her establishment have full do- 
minion, and to feed these growing empires with the bread 
of life, to pour in light upon the barbarism which surrounds 
her and belongs to her, will call for all her energies and ab- 
sorb all her resources. She cannot, for centuries to come, 
do more — if she can do that, it will be a mighty work — 
than satisfy the cries of her own children and the necessi- 
ties of her actual dependents. The heathen world, so far 
as it lies disconnected from her gigantic embrace, and the 
great empires of Western Asia, are cast upon us for the 
knowledge of the Lord. We must answer their demand 
for the Gospel, or it will be answered from papal Rome, and 
Christianity will mourn and perish in the house of its friends. 
While England has opened China, she cannot fill it ; nay, 
for the reason given just now, she cannot touch it in her 
ecclesiastical integrity. Besides her Indian empire, her Af- 
rican colonies, her island continents, her red and black sub- 
jects of British America, would feel that every pound and 
every missionary that was turned towards the heathen was 
so much taken from them. What are three bishops, with 
perhaps as many hundred clergymen, among the many, 
many millions of Hindostan ? What is a single bishop for 
such a world as Australia ? or such an island as New 
Zealand 'I And see what a boundless field spreads away 
north of the Canadas to the Frozen Ocean, covered with 
her Indian subjects ! No, we cannot, and we must not hope 
that England can do and will do everything. She will do 



458 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

the part wnich God has allotted to her, — evangelize her em- 
pire colonies, and rejoice that we are in a condition, from 
our unshackled ecclesiastical arrangements, from the anti- 
colonial and peaceful policy of the government under which 
we live, to make up what is lacking of her ability. She 
will rejoice that our bishops can go, simply as heralds of the 
Cross, representing nothing but the Body of Christ, seeking 
no foothold upon the soil, asking for no privileges save those 
of scattering the seeds of truth, and preaching the unsearch* 
able riches of Christ." 

Turning homewards, to a survey of the domestic opera- 
tions of the American Church, the preacher drew a picture, 
in which one of his distinguished hearers stood foremost on 
the canvass ; and to which allusion the emphatic delivery 
of the bishop, and his position — facing the altar, at the 
opposite end of the church — imparted an effect which may 
be readily conceived. 

" In strong contrast with these fields of foreign labour, yet 
equally interesting and equally important, stand out the 
scenes of labour of our domestic Missionary Bishop. But 
neither its interest nor its importance belong to the present, 
nor yet have they any connexion with the past ; it is in the 
future that they lie ; it is through a vista of years that 
they must be viewed and calculated ! Could the chiuch- 
men of a generation back rise from their graves, and look 
upon the country which they scorned and neglected, how 
bitter would be their sorrow, how deep their repentance ! It 
would be hard for them to recognise in the teeming valley 
of the Mississippi, with its powerful states, and its swelling 
population, and its abounding wealth, the far-off land which 
they deemed it visionary to contemplate and fanaticism to 
evangelize. // toould amaze them to behold eight 
BISHOPS clustering around that missionary tvhom they 
deemed an enthusiast for turning his thoughts, and his 



BISHOP ELLIOTT. 459 

prayers, and his footsteps, westward — looking up to him 
as their ^presiding'' father, as their pioneer, and their 
guide to the diocesses over which they ride — diocesses 
whose very names would strike upon their ears as novel 
and unnatural ! Could they speak to us, how anxiously 
would they exhort us, how earnestly would they pray us, 
as we loved our Church — as we loved our country — as we 
loved the name of Christ — not to be to that rising world the 
cruel step-mother which the Church of their day had proved 
herself! They would tell us to measure the future by the 
past, and in that virgin valley to behold the mistress of this 
western world. Thej^ would bid us watch the rolling tide 
of population, bearing on its bosom the bold, and the enter- 
prising, and the reckless of every nation, and commingling 
them into one mass of vigorous thought and irresistible 
energy, and calcidate its power for good or evil to all futurity. 
They would warn us to ponder upon the reflex influence 
which must throw back from this seat of political dominion 
upon the institutions of the East, strengthening their moral 
power and preserving their religious character, or else corrupt- 
ing, debasing, and overthrowing them. They would bid us 
meditate upon the relation this ever-swelling mass of think- 
ing, reasoning, moving creatures must have upon the 
Church of Christ and the condition of His kingdom, and 
av/ake to duty — to zeal — to self-denial — to self-devoted- 
ness." 

Bishop Elliott's elocution is as good as his style ; and 
afforded me another confirmation of an opinion I have al- 
ready felt constrained to express in favour of the very strik- 
ing superiority of American to English preachers in the 
department of pulpit delivery ; though in the composition 
of sermons the advantage is, as a rule, on the side of the 
latter. Free, however, from those conventionalisms of pro- 
nunciation and tone, which very commonly mar the public- 



460 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

performances of our own clergy, the American clergyman, 
both in the desk and the pulpit, exhibits a simplicity* in his 
reading and delivery that secures the attention, while it 
never offends the taste ; evidencing the severe study and 
culture which has been bestowed on this important branch 
of clerical preparation. 

As it was one of tlie latest, so one of the most interesting 
incidents attending my residence in America, was an intro- 
duction to the intelligent traveller and devoted missionary, 
on whom apostolic hands were this day laid. The name of 
Horatio Southgate, the American Martyn, is already famil- 
iar to the English Churchman, who has, I cannot doubt, fol- 
lowed him through his wide wanderings, and sympathised 
with him in his arduous labours and severe sufferings among 
the downtrodden Christians of the East. Armenia, Kurdis- 
tan, Persia, and Mesopotamia, have successively witnessed 
the untiring zeal of this laborious missionary ; who now re- 
turns to the ancient Syrian [Jacobite] Church — into which 
the American Church has already introduced some healthy 
blood, — as a missionary bishop of the same Catholic family, 
to aid the Anglican Church in rebuilding its waste places, 
and restoring, by friendly advice and assistance in its apos- 
tolic heads, and their faithful but persecuted flocks, the 
ancient glory of Antioch's see. 

I received a volume of Bishop Southgate's recent " Visit 
to the Syrian Church of Mesopotamia," (the secondt book 
of travels he has sent to the press,) at his hands during our 
short acquaintance, which details numerous facts relative to 

* "The last degree of refinement is simplicity; the highest eloquence is the 
plainest; the most effective style is the pure, severe, and vigorous manner, of 
which the great masters are the best teachers." — Nicholas Biddle. 

t The first work (in two volumes) details some of Dr. Southgate's joumey- 
ings in Armenia, Kurdistan, and Asia Minor, with observations on the condition 
of Mahomedanism and Christianity in the East. 



BISHOP SOUTHGATE. 461 

that ancient Catholic community,* as interesting to the an- 
tiquary as to the Christian. Its patriarch, whose residence 
IS at Mardin, possesses in a record of unknown antiquity 
the annals of his predecessors in the patriarchate of An- 
tioch, back to St. Peter, its first bishop. The signatures of 
the greatest part of their names, which number 141, is in 
the handwriting of the patriarchs themselves ; and are tra- 
ditionally the entries of each, including St. Peter himself. 
The fact is not impossible (though Bishop Southgate does 
not undertake to assert its undoubted authenticity), as the 
materials and appearance of the manuscript prove its e.r- 
treine age ; and it is well known to have been (who can 
doubt, by a providential control?) the custom of all the 
early Churches to keep a similar record: by which we are 
now in possession of the line of bishops in every apostolic 
see. 

The sympathy which English and American Churchmen 
ought to feel towards this ancient communion is increased 
by the striking points of similarity between the two 
Churches, — a similarity extending to almost every part of 
government, worship, and doctrine. It is to be trusted that 
the English Church w ill actively co-operate with her Amer- 
ican daughter in the great work of Christian unity ^ nor 
be turned aside by the ignorant cavils of short-sighted un- 
read objectors, whose visions are filled wdth a '■'■ protestant 

* I use the word Catholic here, as elsewhere, in the sense in which our 
Church uses it — its Hteral, primitive, and only sense; in the sense in which it 
was used by Christians universally in the first six centuries, and in which every 
part of the regular Christian family, save only that section of it paying allegiance 
to the Roman Bishop, continue to use it at this day. I leave to the ignorant the 
commission of such a blunder as " Roman Catholic," which term, remarks 
Bishop Chase (commenting on the Visitation Service in the Prayer-book), " like 
French or British Catholic, would be an absurdity;" and to the deliberate fal- 
sifier of language, the exclusive application of the terra " Catholic" to the ad- 
herents of the Roman see. 



462 ECCLESIASTICAL REMINISCENCES. 

establishment,^^ and their sympathy for these desolate and 
forsaken daughters, the first-born of the glorious mission of 
our ascended Lord, is extinguished in their unutterably 
doltish apprehensions that, being catholic and ajwstolic, 
they are, necessarily, ^'■popish.'''' 

" The position of our Church," writes Bishop Southgate, 
" is one in which she appears as chiefly intent upon a unity 
of faith, and yet as wanting in nothing which is essential 
to her character as a branch of the Church Universal. It 
is one in which we must feel compelled to stand upon the 
sure basis of what is evidently necessary to Christian com- 
munion ; one in which we have little temptation to form 
alliances upon incidental resemblances in things of minor 
importance ; one in which it is most needful for their own 
good that we should appear to the Eastern Churches ; one 
in which we may sustain the exalted character of seeking 
a restoration of unity on truly primitive grounds. May 
we have grace to understand and improve our advantages, 
turning neither to the right hand nor to the left ; presenting 
the Church in her pure faith and her unsullied worship to 
eyes which will not fail, the more single their vision be- 
comes, to be attracted by the one an4 love the other ! There 
is no Church on earth which has the power for good among 
the Eastern Christians which the Church of England and 
the sister Church in the United States possess. May we 
use it as an inestimable treasure, as a precious talent for 
which we must give account !" 

One year only was occupied in the duties of my new 
parish, when domestic affairs abruptly terminated my con- 
nexion with Maryland and the American Church. I took 
final leave of the United States on the 10th of June, in the 
" fast-sailing packet-ship Sivitzerland'^ (commanded by 
Captain Kniglit), from New York, being the same month 
and the same day of the month on which I first arrived at 



CONCLUSION. 463 

that port, eleven years previously. After an agreeable pas- 
sage, unmarked by any events worth recording, we reached 
London on the 1st of July ; with which event this record, 
for the most part hastily compiled, and in the absence of 
many materials which would have additionally assisted me 
in the illustration of my subject, is brought to a close. 



APPENDIX. 

No. I. 

TRINITY CHURCH, NEW YORK. 
(^Abridged from Mr. Onderdonk's History of (he New York churches.) 



With the erection of this magnificent structure may be said 
to commence a new era in the church architecture of America. 
Heretofore, as a general rule, attention to the pure and uncor- 
rupted style of the ancients has been but little regarded in the 
construction of our churches ; and the symmetrical proportions 
and flowing lines of the fine old classic models, which might be 
adopted in very many cases without increased expense, are passed 
over with indifference, or sacrificed to capricious fancy. With 
the advancement of the arts, however, architectonic taste must 
necessarily become more cultivated and refined, and it is to be 
hoped that ere long it will be considered as much a reproach to 
dispense with the rules of architectural composition in the con- 
struction of an edifice, as it now is to dispense with the rules of 
perspective in the delineation of a drawing. 

The structure we are now treating of displays elegant propor- 
tions and admirable uniformity, and is in all respects truly cred- 
itable to the age and nation, as well as a lasting monument of the 
munificent character of its venerable corporation. The whole of 
this immense fabric, including the tower and spire, is constructed 
of solid stone. It was quarried expressly for this church at Little 
Falls, New Jersey, four miles beyond Paterson, on the Passaic, 
and contiguous to the Morris Canal, through which it was con- 
veyed to Newark, and thence by vessels to New York. The 
quarry was originally opened a few years since, to furnish stone 
for the construction of an aqueduct over the Passaic, and has 
there proved to be of a very superior quality, not only in its tone 
and colour, but for its capability of resisting the action of water 
and of frost. Throughout the building this stone is laid on its 

30 



466 APPENDIX. 

natural bed, the most durable position in which it can be placed, 
and will, unless destroyed by some unforeseen calamity, almost 
defy the mouldering hand of Time. The style of architecture is 
the perpendicular Gothic, the peculiar characteristic of which is, 
that the muUions of the windows and the ornamented panellings 
run in perpendicular lines. This term originated with Mr. 
Thomas Rickman, a celebrated architect of Liverpool, and was 
applied by him to all English buildings erected after the accession 
of King Richard II., down to the final disuse of the pointed arch, 
and seems to designate more forcibly than any other the desired 
distinction. The pointed arch, struck from two centres on the 
line of its base, was adopted by Mr. Upjohn, the architect, and 
has been strictly adhered to throughout the building ; its simple 
form having been preferred to the Tudor or flat arch, as more in 
harmony with the general design. 

Several fine views of this church may be had from the con- 
tiguous streets. In approaching it from the lower part of Broad- 
way, the south side of the edifice and front of the tower appear to 
very great advantage. The most picturesque appearance, how- 
ever, is presented from the corner of Rector Street and Trinity 
Place. Here the chancel and south-aisle windows, the clerestory, 
the tower, and the spire, are seen rising in succession one above 
the other, each exhibiting its fine proportions and exquisite sym- 
metry, and all alike bewildering the eye with the plenitude of 
their ornament and the finish of their decoration. In passing 
round the church, the extent and arrangement of the plan are 
more readily discernible, and an opportunity is given to examine 
the detail and character of the workmanship. 

[When will the same be said of St. Paul's cathedral ? whose 
situation, with shops and warehouses crowding upon it, conceal- 
ing its fair and matchless proportions, and the disgraceful state of 
all the approaches to it, are a scandal both to the civic and the 
ecclesiastical authorities ; besides reflecting on the public spirit 
of the citizens of London, who pull down a church to improve the 
site of a merchant's exchange, whilst they voluntarily submit to 
the inconvenience of an obstructed thoroughfare in their indiffer- 
ence to the situation and aspect of their diocesan temple ! ! So 
Mammon has the cAie/" worship in London, whilst the temple of 
God, cold, damp, deserted, like a tomb ; its untrodden vestibule 
and steps green with their unused decay; and the banished 



APPENDIX. 467 

altar,* stands, in its prison-like aspect, a fit emblem and monu- 
ment of a " protestant " age !] 

The aisle wall of Trinity, which rises to the height of forty feet, 
is supported by eight substantial buttresses, graduated into three 
stages by set-otfs, and capped by richly crocketted gables termin- 
ating with a finial. Between the buttresses, pointed windows, 
elaborately ornamented by bold but delicately cut stone tracery, 
and divided into three bays by two perpendicular mullions con- 
taining metal sashes glazed by panes of stained glass in the lozenge 
and other forms, rise to the height of twenty-four feet from 
the sill to the apex of the arch. A moulded battlement surmounts 
this wall, extending its whole length, harmonising with the gener- 
al style, and giving a finish and beauty to its appearance. 

The clerestory, which is supported by massive piers of hewn 
stone and a succession of arches springing from them, rises in 
magnificent proportion above the aisle, and contains nine orna- 
mented windows, giving light to the nave, varied in detail, but 
similar in general design to those already noticed. The but- 
tresses between them are graduated into two stages by a single 
set-otr, and are crowned, in addition to a gable, by light and airy 
pinnacles, with crockets at the angles and terminating with a 
finial. An embattled parapet extends along the top of the wall, 
from the tower to the extreme west end. The extent of the 
chancel is denoted by two large octagonal pinnacles, richly or- 
namented, and rising above the roof to a greater height than any 
of the others. 

On the north and south sides of the church lateral porches, 
supported at the angles by buttresses set square, and surmounted 
by parapets pierced with quatrefoil and other suitable enrich- 
ments, give entrance to the interior by three doors each. 

The chancel end of the church possesses great merit, and pre- 
sents to the eye a chastity and simplicity of effect, in strict ac- 
cordance with architectural taste. It also proves that the beauty 
and symmetry of a design does not depend so much upon the 
amount of ornament introduced into its composition, as upon the 

* The glorious dome of St. Paul's was designed by the architect to canopy 
the principal altar. It looks down upon the money-changers' tables, and the 
dally sacrilege of a shmo for the entertainment of the sight-seeing, paying 
visitors ! ! ! Westminster Abbey, also, with its disfiguring concealments outside, 
and its dust and dilapidation within, is another national disgrace. 



468 APPENDIX. 

adaptation and fitness of its various parts, and the perfection of 
its outline and general contour. No ornaments are introduced 
simply as such, but the whole grandeur and artistic etl'ect of the 
view arises from that peculiar harmonising of all tiie parts, 
which results from masterlike arrangement and an intimate 
knowledge of true architectural principles. It is at once perceiv- 
ed that the altar window is the most striking and magnificent 
feature of this view. Its elaborate and beautiful tracery attests 
the skill of the architect, and affords also to the admirer of the 
arts a subject worthy his contemplation and his study. It is dis- 
tant from the ground twenty feet, ana rises to the apex sixty-five 
feet, and is twenty-five feet in width. Its great breadth is distri- 
buted into seven bays by two principal and four subordinate 
mullions, and its length divided from the sill to the spring of the 
arch into two grand sections by a transom mullion in the centre. 
The heading is distributed into minor lights or openings, formed 
by numerous sub-divisions, ornamented by feathered tracery ex- 
hibiting much skill in the cutting. The jambs and arch mould- 
ings are well executed, bold, and characteristic of the age and 
style of the architecture ; the label or weather-moulding is taste- 
ful and appropriate, and the splay on the back is made very 
effective by the receding of the wall above. Directly over this 
window is another of small dimensions, which serves to ventilate 
the roof, cut in quatrefoil, and deeply set in the wall. Above 
the whole extends a perpendicular perforated parapet, softening 
the asperity of the solid lines of the high pitched roof, and crown- 
ed upon the apex by a cross. The centre portion of this front, or 
that containing the windows just described, is separated from its 
laterals by buttresses set square, graduated and fitted into several 
stages, and terminating by octagonal crocketted pinnacles, en- 
riched by finials. The clerestory, as seen in this view, is sup- 
ported by flying buttresses springing from the walls of the vestry, 
which is lighted by the three homologous windows near the 
ground. 

In the tower the proper proportion between it and the body of 
the church is carefully maintained. It measures at the base, 
outside the walls, thirty feet on each side, and is strengthened on 
the outer angles by double buttresses four feet in width, set square 
from the wall, and projecting at their bases seven feet and six 
inches. These buttresses are graduated into four sections, with 



APPENDIX. 469 

panelled work upon the face, and rise to the height of one hun- 
dred and twenty-six feet, where they terminate by ornamented 
gables. About sixty feet from the ground the sides of the tower 
pinnacles commence, and as the buttresses in their ascent dimin- 
ish in size, are increasingly developed, until at last the whole of 
them is formed. The walls of the tower are six feet nine inches 
thick at their commencement, and four feet thick under the em- 
battled parapet. The tower porch which leads into the vestibule 
is twenty feet in width including the buttresses, and thirty feet in 
height to the top of the parapet. In passing through the wall, 
which is here eight feet and six inches thick, these dimensions 
are gradually decreased by a receding arch richly ornamented 
by carved tracery, which renders it at its termination but ten feet 
wide in the clear and eighteen feet in height. On either side it 
is flanked by panelled buttresses, with moulded set-offs, termina- 
ting in a gable of elaborate workmanship, and is covered by a 
decorated label, upon which is sculptured in a chaste and beauti- 
ful manner a continuous wreath, formed of oak-leaves and acorns. 
Over the whole is a perforated moulded battlement, of quatrefoil 
and trefoil, with the centre compartment running into an open 
arch, under which is placed a pedestal supporting a bishop's mi- 
tre, and continuing the associations connected with the one that 
crowned the apex of the circular portico of the former edifice. 

Immediately above this door, and occupying the greater portion 
of the lower section of the tower, which is sixty feet in height, is 
a noble window, divided into four lights by mullions, and into 
three stories by a main transom in the centre, and another at the 
springing of the arch. The compartments thus made form each 
a pointed feather-arch, into which, as in the other windows of the 
church, are set metal sashes glazed with stained glass panes. A 
crocketted ogee label, elaborately sculptured, and crowned at the 
apex by a finial, runs over this window, and presents a striking 
and beautiful appearance. Upon either side of this section of 
the tower are two canopied tabernacle niches, with pedestals con- 
taining statues of the four evangelists cut in stone. The next 
story of the tower contains the clock, which is encompassed by a 
richly ornamented frame of the lozenge form, with the moulding 
receding as far into the massive walls as was practicable for its 
uses. Above are the belfry windows, composed of two independ- 
ent compartments, separated by a strong pier, and each sur- 



470 APPENDIX. 

mounted by a decorated ogee label, similar to that over the great 
window below. The belfry contains a chime of eight bells. 
The coping of the tower consists of a cornice, ornamented at re- 
gular distances with clusters of foliage sculptured upon the ends 
of the long-headers, which pass as braces through the thickness 
of the wall, and is crowned with a handsome embattled parapet 
one hundred and twenty-seven feet from the ground, divided at 
the angles by octagonal crocketted pinnacles rising from the but- 
tresses below, and terminating by richly sculptured finials. 

Four arches are sprung from the angles of the tower to receive 
the superstructure of the spire, which for fine proportion and ad- 
mirable effect is perhaps not inferior to any heretofore construct- 
ed, and may, without suffering by the contrast, be classed with 
those splendid English archetypes of Salisbury and Chichester. 
It is of octagonal form, and rises from its base in the centre of 
the tower, to the top of the cross which surmounts it, to the height 
of one hundred and thirty-seven feet, which makes it, in con- 
nexion with the tower, two hundred and sixty-four feet from the 
ground. Its base is ornamented by four tabernacle windows, and 
by the same number of flying buttresses springing from the cor- 
ners of the tower. Each face of the octagon is decorated at re- 
gular intervals by lozenge-shaped openings, and the angles are 
embellished by crocketted mouldings, which serve to enhance the 
beauty and effect of its needle-like appearance, without in any 
way marring its fine proportions. Near the apex, very delicate 
and beautiful net-work tracery extends around the spire ; and 
over all, surmounting the very capstone, stands in bold relief 
against the sky the Christian's emblem — a plain, unornamented 

CROSS. 

A spiral staircase, composed of stone steps projecting from the 
wall, and lighted by narrow pointed windows between the west- 
ern buttress of the tower and the body of the church, leads to 
the clock and belfry, whence by other stairs access to the spire 
is had, where an ascent to within twenty feet of the apex is prac- 
ticable. 

Having now described the exterior of this magnificent church, 
at present the finest and most costly in our country, we will pro- 
ceed through the front porch into the vestibule or tower. This 
vestibule is eighteen feet square, and nearly twenty feet in height. 
Its ceiling is constructed of oak beams, resting upon corbels pro- 



APPENDIX. 471 

jecting from the walls, and strengthened by perforated spandrils, 
and has an opening in the centre to allow the admission of bells, 
&c. into the interior of the tower. Continuing onward, we pass 
through the inner door of the vestibule, into a passage under the 
organ-loft, leading directly to the body of the church. Tiiis 
view is very imposing to the eye, from the fine perspective pro- 
duced by beholding at one glance the full length of the nave from 
the choir to the great altar window, a distance of one hundred 
and thirty-seven feet, and by the beautiful etfect of the light 
thrown into the church by means of the aisle and clerestory win- 
dows. The nave is thirty-six feet in width, and rises to its ex- 
treme height, sixty-seven feet and six inches. It is supported on 
either side by a colonnade of seven perpendicular English piers 
of cut stone, which serve also, in connexion with massive and 
substantial arches springing from them, to maintain the clerestory 
walls. The capitals of these piers are of simple design, consist- 
ing merely of foliated headings to slender cylindrical shafts ris- 
ing between their principal projections, and the bases of them are 
formed by three courses of appropriate mouldings. Between 
every two arches, reeded columns, springing from the prhicipal 
members of the piers, join with the clerestory wall, and finish 
with foliated capitals ; from which branch off", in different direc- 
tions, the ribs of the vaulting. Directly over the arches are the 
clerestory windows, numbering nine on a side, ornamented by 
moulded labels, resting upon corbels, and exhibiting in other 
respects the same beautiful divisions and feathered tracery already 
noticed in treating of their exterior appearance. The vaulting 
of the ceiling over the nave is elegantly pitched, and the ribs di- 
verging from the slender columns before mentioned, spread them- 
selves gracefully over the groining, and are decorated at their 
various intersections by bosses formed of clustered foliage. The 
vaulting of the aisles is of the same character as that of the nave, 
and equally as good, but not so effective on account of the ditfer- 
ence in elevation and length. 

The chancel, which comes next in order, deserves particular 
notice for its grandeur and elaborate decoration. It is raised two 
feet above the level of the ground pavement and is situated in a 
recess thirty-three feet deep, separated from the body of the 
church by a noble arch springing from two great piers on either 
side the nave. Its walls are richly ornamented by tracery and 



472 APPENDIX. 

panel work covering all their space, and it is lighted by the great 
altar window and four others in the clerestory. Immediately 
above its centre, in the ceiling of the nave, at the intersection 
of the ribs, is a large and beautiful boss formed by the letters 
jj. i9. 0. encircled with foliage of different patterns. The altar 
is situated near the western wall, directly in front of the altar 
screen, which is thirty feet wide and twenty feet high, and is 
constructed of oak richly and splendidly carved. The chancel 
railing, which is also of carved oak, extends between the two 
great piers that support the chancel arch. 

From the chancel a fine view of the nave looking east is pre- 
sented, taking in the choir and the interior of the tower, which is 
exposed to sight through a massive arch in its rear wall, to the 
large front window immediately above the porch. The light 
from this window, which comes in through stained glass panes, 
is rendered radiant by the many apertures and projections of the 
organ, and brings out in bold relief the ornamented pinnacles and 
handsome perforated work with which this instrument abounds. 
The choir is supported by beams laid upon corbels projecting 
from the side walls of the tower, and is so situated that it does 
not encroach upon the interior of the church. The screen in 
front of it, like all the wood work, is of oak, handsom.ely de- 
signed and carved. The organ, a magnificent instrument, is 
from the manufactory of Mr. Henry Erben, by whom, under the 
superintendence of Dr. Hodges, the musical director of the par- 
ish, it was constructed. The case, which is of oak, was designed 
by Mr. Upjohn, and its exceedingly rich appearance adds an im- 
portant feature to the interior view of the church. The stops of 
the organ, so far as the stops of pipes are concerned, barely ex- 
ceed thirty ; with the couplers, a little over forty ; but the range 
or compass of the instrument is altogether unparalleled in this 
country. There are four diapason and two reed pipes, each six- 
teen feet in length, a double diapason pipe, thirty-two feet in 
length, measuring internally thirty by thirty-six inches, besides 
an innumerable quantity of smaller pipes of various dimensions. 
The swell is an invention of Dr. Hodges, and is of the most ap- 
proved kind. 

From the choir you look down upon the floor of the church, 
the pews of which are constructed of oak ; and the aisles, which 
are eight feet in width, are paved with tessellated brown stone. 



APPENDIX. 473 

The desk and pulpit stand upon opposite sides of the nave, some- 
what in advance of the chancel, and are of beautiful design and 
elaborate workmanship. No galleries have been erected in the 
church, and in fact there should be none, for in an edifice like 
Trinity, galleries, unless of the character of the ancient trifo- 
rium, would only detract from the grandeur and magnificence of 
the building. 

The extensive cemetery in which the church is erected is one 
of the most ancient in the city, having been the resting-place of 
successive generations for about one hundred and fifly years. It 
is crowded with monumental records, some of them bearing as 
early a date as 1704, and others supposed to be more ancient, 
but with their inscriptions entirely effaced. Among their num- 
ber are two, erected to men, the one a statesman and the other a 
warrior, whose memories are enshrined within the hearts of all 
America. The monument of Alexander Hamilton consists of a 
polyedron of white marble, ornamented at the edges by fluted 
pilasters, and surmounted upon the corners by four urns, and 
upon the centre by a handsome pyramid. It bears the following 
inscription : — 

TO THE MEMORY OF 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

THE CORPORATION OF TRINITY CHURCH HAS ERECTED THIS 

MONUMENT, 

IN TESTIMONY OF THEIR RESPECT FOR 
THE PATRIOT OF INCORRUPTIBLE INTEGRITY, 

THE SOLDIER OF APPROVED VALOUR, 
THE STATESMAN OF CONSUMMATE WISDOM ; 

WHOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES WILL BE ADMIRED 

BY GRATEFUL POSTERITY 

LONG AFTER THIS MARBLE SHALL HAVE MOULDERED INTO 

DUST. 

HE DIED JULY 12tH, 1804, AGED 49. 

The charter of Trinity church, a document which makes some 
thirty printed pages, was granted by letters patent, under the 



474 APPENDIX. 

great seal of the colony of New York, and bears date the sixth 
of May, 1697. It incorporates the parish into a body politic, 
under the name of the " Rector and Inhabitants of New York in 
communion with the Protestant Church of England, as established 
by law," and grants the plot of ground now occupied by the 
church and cemetery, together with certain specified privileges 
and immunities, for the yearly rent of " One Pepper Corn," to be 
paid on the " Feast Day of the Annunciation of our blessed Vir- 
gin Mary," provided the same be lawfully demanded. 

After the United States had cast off their allegiance to Great 
Britain and established their independence, the legislature of 
New York, by an act passed the seventeenth day of April, 1784, 
made such alterations in the above charter as were necessary to 
conform it to the constitution of the state. By the same act, the 
doubts which had previously arisen on those parts of the charter 
relating to the inhabitants of the city in communion of the Church 
of England, were removed for all future time, by the explicit 
enactment that such persons only as professed themselves mem- 
bers of the Episcopal Church, and held or enjoyed a pew or seat 
in the church concerned, and regularly paid for its support, and 
such others as received the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
in the said church, at least once in every year, being inhabitants 
of the city and county of New York, should alone be entitled to 
the rights and privileges originally secured without distinction to 
all the inhabitants of the city in communion with the Church of 
England. In 1788, by another act of the legislature, the corpo- 
ration of Trinity church was allowed to assume a new title ; 
which title, however, was not to invalidate any of the grants 
made to or by it under the former name, nor to abrogate in any 
manner its existing rights and privileges. By a subsequent simi- 
lar process in 1813, the title was again altered to " The Rector, 
Churchwardens, and Vestrymen, of Trinity Church, in the city 
of New York." 

[The vestry of Trinity have proved themselves faithful trus- 
tees, not only in furthering the immediate objects of the Church 
in their own parish, but in the aid which they are ever prompt to 
render to the general cause of religion and benevolence.] 

The communion-plate belonging to Trinity parish is massive 
and valuable, and consists of a number of flagons, patens, cha- 
lices, and plates, some of which bear the royal arms, and were 



APPENDIX. 475 

presented by William and Mary, and Queen Anne. Other 
pieces, engraved with a like device, contain the simple initials 
G. R. It seems probable that George I., George II., and George 
III., were also presenters. There are also a {ew articles from 
private donors, among which are two plates, presented one by a 
Mrs. Mary Leaver, and the other by the Rev. Henry Barclay, a 
former rector of the parish. 

Trinity is the parish-church of the parish of that name, which 
includes also, at the present date, St. Paul's and St. John's 
chapels, the former erected in 1766, and the latter in 1807. 
From the years 1752 to 1811, St. George's church in Beekman 
Street was a chapel of the parish. The three congregations of 
Trinity church and its chapels formed, for all parochial purposes 
and in reference to pastoral oversight, but one ; and the rector 
and ministers officiated in the church and chapels in rotation 
until the year 1836, when, by an enactment of the vestry, the 
assistant ministers had each assigned to him a particular church, 
in which he was regularly to perform the morning services on 
Sundays and holydays, and whose congregation was to be con- 
sidered as under his individual pastoral charge : the exchanges, 
therefore, which were formerly made promiscuously, were con- 
fined thereafter exclusively to Sunday evenings. 

The churchwardens and vestrymen of the parish are chosen 
by ballot from the three congregations, without distinction, on 
every Tuesday in Easter week ; and pew-holders and members 
of the congregation, being communicants, are electors. The 
rector of the parish, or, in his absence, his assistant, if he have 
one, is the president, and the only clerical member of that body, 
and sustains, in reference to parochial duty and public adminis- 
trations, an equal connexion with all three congregations. Di- 
vine service is uniformly celebrated in the parish, not only at 
the usual hours on Sunday, but also on the morning of every 
Wednesday and Friday, and of every festival and holyday of the 
Christian Church. 

The present rector is the eighth that has held that office. The 
succession is as follows : — 

William Vesey - . . - from 1696 to 1746 
Henry Barclay, D.D. ... « 1746 " 1764 

Samuel Auchmuty, D.D. - - « 1764 " 177T 



47G APPENDIX. 

Charles Inglis, D.D. - . - from 1777 to 1783 

Samuel Provoost, D.D. bishop - " 1783 " 1800 

Benjamin Moore, D.D, bishop - " 1800" 1816 

John Henry Hobart, D.D. bishop - " 1816 " 1830 

William Berrian ... " 1830 

Of the above, Dr. Inglis, after leaving Trinity parish, became 
Bishop of Nova Scotia, and all except Mr. Vesey and Dr. Bar- 
clay were previously assistant-ministers ; in addition to whom, 
besides the present incumbents, the following gentlemen have at 
diiferenl times held that office : — John Ogilvie, D.D. ; John Bow. 
den, D.D.; Abraham Beach, D.D. ; John Bisset ; Cave Jones; 
Thomas Y. How, D.D. ; Thomas C. Brownell, D.D., LL.D. 
(now Bishop of Connecticut) ; Benjamin T. Onderdonk, D.D. 
(now Bishop of New York) ; John F. Schroeder, D.D. ; and 
Henry Anthon, D.D. 

The following is a list of the present clergy and vestry of the 
parish : — 

Rector : 
William Berrian, D.D. 

Assistant Ministers : 
Jonathan M. Wainwright, D.D. 
Edward Y. Higbee, D.D 
One vacancy. 

Churchwardens : 
Thomas L. Ogden Adam Tredwell. 

Vestrymen : 

Teunis Quick Henry Cotheal 

Jonathan H. Lawrence John D. Wolfe 

Edward W. Laight Thomas L. Clark 

Peter A. Mesier William Moore 

Anthony L. Underbill William H. Hobart 

William Johnson Henry Youngs 

Philip Hone Alexander L. McDonald 

William E. Dunscomb Samuel G. Raymond 

William H. Harrison Gulian C. Verplanck 

Robert Hyslop Philip Henry, 



APPENDIX, 477 



No. II. 



To the reader who may possess any desire to learn the result 
of my application for admission to the English Church, the cir- 
cumstances attending it may perhaps afford sufficient interest to 
warrant my appending them to my American journal. 

Having been furnished by Dr. C r with a letter explana- 
tory and recommendatory to the Bishop of London, I forwarded 
the same, accompanied by Bishop Griswold's Dimissory, to his 
lordship, who gave me an interview at Fulham on New Year's 
Day ; when he told me that the then statute of the 26th of George 
III. (which lie read to me) was fatal to my plans, unless the spe- 
cial consent of the primate could be obtained for a dispensation in 
my favour, which he discouraged my expecting. Dr. Lushing- 
ton, he said, had recorded a formal protest against the legality of 
Mr. VVinslowe's ordination to the priesthood, and the title by 
which he held his cure. It was in contemplation, the bishop 
added, to obtain the enactment of a new statute, which would put 
American ordained clergymen on a different footing in England ; 
the provisions of this Act would make no distinction between 
bishops, priests, or deacons. His lordship, therefore, recom- 
mended me " at all events," to obtain my full orders in America, 
— and I acted on his recommendation. 

Before, however, returning to the United States, a clerical 
friend and neighbour of my father's volunteered to assist in ob- 
taining for me my desired object ; and kindly enlisted Archdea- 
con Lear and his diocesan (Bishop Denison) in my cause. The 
latter made an application to the Archbishop for the legal dispen- 
sation, which was courteously refused on the ground, — 1st, that 
none bad been yet granted under the Act of Geo. III. cap. xxvi ; 
and 2ndly, that the newly framed statute, intending to apply to 
similar cases, was shortly to become law. Finding, therefore, 
all prospect of an early change of ecclesiastical relationship hope- 
less, I prepared to return to America, when accidentally meeting 
my true-hearted friend in London, he determined on making an- 
other effort in my behalf by a personal appeal to the primate, 
who gave him an interview at Lambeth, when, admitting my 
•'case" to be a "hard one," he repeated his refusal to depart 
from the rule he had laid down, and I returned to Wiltshire to 



478 APPENDIX. 

take leave of my friends. Here a letter followed me from a gen- 
tleman ecclesiastically connected with the Newfoundland mis- 
sion, whose acquaintance (one of the most delightful I have ever 
formed) had commenced under the paternal roof during the pre- 
vious winter : — 

" 4 Exeter Hall, May 31s<, 1838. 

" My dear sir, 

" Although I was aware that you left town with the intention 
of proceeding to the United States, yet I cannot resist the impulse 
to write to you, which I feel produced by the impression that you 
determined to take that course, from the conviction that no door 
of usefulness could be opened to you here, in your native land ; 
and at the request of a friend who has desired me to make you 
acquainted with a vacancy, which from my description he thinks 
you could and would like to fill. 

" Mr. D s has built a church, and I believe endowed it 

with £1000, in N d, M x, which he hopes to get licensed 

and consecrated ; in this he is disappointed, and will not allow it 
to be occupied by a dissenting minister, but would give it to a 
person circumstanced like yourself, willing to conform to Episco- 
pal orders, so far as you are permitted by the higher powers : 
that is, in all things in which the law at present vvill allow you 
to comply with its requisitions. I believe this is your case. 
* * * * 

" Having given you this hasty and rough outline, I will add 
the address of the patron of the church, who expects to hear from, 
or see you ; he has desired me to say there is a bed at his house 
for you, and he would wish you to see the place and church. It 
is but four or five miles from town. 

" May the great Head of the Church guide and bless you for 
his own glory and the increase of his kingdom. 

" Will you present my Christian respects to your family, who, 
I hope, are all well. 

" I am, my dear Sir, in haste, 

" Yours faithfully, 

"M— K W Y." 

I responded to the suggestion contained in this letter by making 
a visit to N d : but the uncanonical and somewhat anomalous 



APPENDIX. 479 

position in which the proposed relationship would place me, both 
towards the regular ecclesiastical authorities and the parish in 

which Mr. D 's church was built, presented to botli of us, 

when the matter came to be discussed, insuperable ditliculties to 
a pastoral connection with the latter, and after a visit to Wales 
and the Isle of Wight I sailed for New York. 

This voyage to England, though resulting unsuccessfully in 
my own individual case, fully tested the impracticability of get- 
ting Church preferment in England with foreign orders, and had 
the effect of deterring more than one from making a similar at- 
tempt. The disappointment was in a great measure counterbal- 
anced by the high gratification I received in the intercourse of 
numerous friends who took a lively interest in my case ; nor can 
I forbear recording that of an esteemed clergyman, whose pas- 
toral tutorage and sound instructions had first sown in early youth 
the seeds of that preference for the order and worship of the 
Church which had ripened to maturity in a foreign land. In this 
work of education my excellent tutor was ably assisted, particu- 
larly in the biblical studies of the pupils (nearly all of whom are 
now in holy orders), by his accomplished lady ; whose writings, 
adapted so admirably to the juvenile capacity, have diffused the 
sweet fragrance of their sanctity, like blossoms and flowers of 
Eden, into many families of our isle. The pen would fain trans- 
cribe several souvenirs from this quarter, did not delicacy forbid ; 
but the following, so well calculated to assist in lightening the 
heart when the widening distance from England's ocean-bound 
shores widened the separation from home and friends, is, I hope, 
not improperly or inappropriately inserted : — 

"/? y, A 29</i, 1838. 

" My dear friend, 
" Your commiUnication by this post conveys to us two streams 
of feeling, the one of pleasure, the other of regret : the latter, 
that of not being allowed to meet ere your return to America ; 
the former, the consideration of that vital principle of godliness 
which will, I rest assured, spring up as a well in your soul unto 
eternal life. Blessed be our God, the streams from the smitten 
rock in the wilderness will follow us all the way; and though 
it must for our benefit sometimes have the bitter wood thrown 
into it, yet it will flow to refresh us all our journey, till Jor- 



480 APPENDIX. 

dan's stream itself divides to let us pass over unto the prom- 
ised 



' land of pure delight 

Where saints immortal reign.' 

' Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood 
Stand dressed in living green.' 

" Again assure your dear sister she will share our prayers 
with you for the abundant blessing of the Lord to rest upon each 
of you. Tell her I send to her, with my Christian love, the lit- 
tle book entitled 'Extracts from Mr. and Mrs. Gutzlaff''s Letters.' 
I knew Mrs. G. previously to her going out, and have put the 
extracts together for the use and encouracrement of missionaries. 
She was a self-denying missionary, going out alone ; and, on her 
own account, giving herself and her property to the service of 
the Lord in foreign climes ; and it prospers in and through her 
labours. 

But I faid God has and does not only honour me by tokens of 
making my weak labours useful, but he blesses me through them 
in enabling me to open my purse wider than I could otherwise do 

for the use of the poor around us. Mr. M k will write to 

you himself. 

" With my kindest regard to your parents and family, and 
every good wishes for a safe voyage, believe me to remain, 
" Your very sincere friend, 

''E. A. M K." 

The other letter referred to, closed with an injunction to "Re- 
member who sits at the helm, and guides the ship." It accom- 
panied a volume of the writer's " Plain Sermons on Important 
Subjects for the use of Seamen," whose relative value, though 
great to the author, scarcely exceeded their intrinsic merit, as ad- 
mirably designed for persons of the nautical profession. Their 
perusal delightfully employed many a leisure hour during the 
monotonous period of a steam-passage. I am fain to add to this 
narration and record, two other documents : one a characteristic 
missive from my Rhode Island friend, under whose instructions I 
had prosecuted my theological studies, received a iew days after 
our arrival at New York ; and the other, the first renewal of a 



APPENDIX. 481 

most valued correspondence with the good vicar of Salisbury 
Plain, received after my settlement at York : — 

"P e, , 1838. 

" My very dear sir, 

" I had like to have said son ; doubtless, because T have felt 
for you so long the solicitude of a father. A thrill of pleasure 
came over me when your arrival was announced, and I shall be 
exceedingly glad to see you and your self-sacrificing sister in 
Providence. A sacrifice, indeed, it must be to follow your for- 
tunes and share in your labours. I was in New York several 
days after the arrival of tlie Great Western. How glad would 
have been our meeting ! * * Your mother's letter, like 
all I have seen from her practised pen, was delightful. I owe 
her much ; and am absolutely ashamed that no letter has reached 
her or yourself during your absence. My only apology is, per- 
haps, a poor one. * * * Your little parish is sup- 
plied at present ; and should you wish to take some other one in 
Rhode Island, I doubt whether we have a church to olfer which 
would meet your acceptance. But, at any rate, I hope you will 
make us a visit. We know not what may transpire. I should 
be glad to have you once more a resident of this State, and the 
rather because of the excellent coadjutor you bring with you. 
Please to make my compliments acceptable to her, and believe 
me 

" Your very sincere friend and brother, 

"N. B. C R." 



" Vkarage, T d, J 13, 1839. 

" My dear Waylen, 
" I am truly glad to hear that you are so comfortably settled 
in communion with your own Church. No doubt by this time 
you have received your priest's orders and are a 'full-dressed' 
clergyman. Both our bishop and archdeacon have several times 
inquired after you, and seemed glad to hear that your episcopal 
principles had prevented you from joining the English dissenters. 
His lordship regrets very much the position in which both he and 
his brethren are placed in respect to ordaining American cler- 
gymen. ' The unity of the Church,' says he, ' is thereby sadly 
broken.' 

31 



482 APPENDIX. 

" A project is on foot for the more direct union of the clergy 
here, the commencement of which has taken place in our diocese. 
We agree to meet our archdeacon in parties of twenty or thirty, 
as locality permits, at stated periods, to take into consideration 
public measures affecting the church and local matters concern- 
ing our parishes. By which arrangement, when completed, the 
%vhole clergy of the kingdoin can communicate their wislies to the 
bishops on any subject affecting the interests of our commission 
in a iew days. I cannot but hope, under the Divine blessing, 
much good from the plan both to ourselves and our people. 

" Mrs. J n and I often speak of you, and wish that we 

could enter your church some Sunday and witness your proceed- 
ings. I shall be glad to hear of your elevation as high as hon- 
ours and degrees can do so ; still more, that your congregation 
increases in grace and numbers. 

" Mrs. J. requests me to beg the favour, if such creatures are 
to be found (which I doubt) in your part of America, of a hum- 
ming bird or two, when your convenience will allow you to send 
them, or indeed any other foreign curiosity that may be rare 
here. This is a strange request, but, as in duty bound, I make 
it. But I beg you will not put yourself to much expense or 
trouble in such matters. 

" It occurs to me that the ' Ecclesiastical Gazette ' will be ac- 
ceptable. I will from time to time forward some for the inform- 
ation of your American friends. I send all I have by me with 

this note to your sisters at D s, leaving them to pack them 

up. This will give them an opportunity of previously looking 
them over, if desirable. 

" Believe me, 

" My dear Waylen, 

" Yours truly, 

"J. H. J N." 



No. III. 

AMERICAN CHURCH STATISTICS BEYOND THE UNITED STATES. 

Though the term " American " is commonly used amongst us 
to designate the people and country of the United States, the rea- 



APPENDIX. 483 

der is reminded that the Church in that country is only one 
branch of the catholic family in the northern continent of Amer- 
ica. In the vast empire of British North America, one-third 
larger in territory than the United States, there are upwards of 
two hundred thousand members of the Church of England, under 
the spiritual care of five bishops and three hundred clergy (a 
most inadequate number), with a theological seminary in each 
diocess. In the West Indies — exclusive of Guiana, which is a 
diocess with a bishop— are three bishops and 171 clergy. It is 
to be hoped that our numerous and destitute countrymen in Ore- 
gon, and the fertile Vancouver, will also soon receive the benefits 
of episcopal supervision and missionary instruction. A territory 
so incalculably valuable from its geographical position, and upon 
which millions of British money have been expended for other 
purposes, certainly deserves the nursing care of the Church at 
home ; and makes a louder call upon the committee for endowing 
colonial bishoprics than others which have lately received the 
preference. It is impossible for the Bishop of Toronto, whose 
visitations already extend north and west of Lake Superior, to 
cross the Rocky Mountains. The United States will soon send 
a bishop to the south of the wide valley beyond ; and is the vast 
territory northward, covered with our forts and storehouses, in- 
habited by thousands of British subjects and the friendly tribes 
of red men, to lift up its hands in vain for want of spiritual over- 
sight ? Let British Christians make the response ! 

[The importance — nay, the coming necessity — of a highway 
across the continent, requiring a navigable outlet, seems wholly 
hid (by some extraordinary obliquity of vision) from a great por- 
tion of the English nation, to whom it is chujly valuable. The 
politicians of the United States are, however, fully alive to its ad- 
vantages, and are adopting a stratagem, which, however despe- 
rate the risk they run, is deemed necessary to secure the only 
thing that makes Oregon, as a colonial possession, wortli the 
trouble of negotiation to Britain ; and are we prepared, by a vol- 
untary and uncalled-for relinquishment of our share of this ad- 
vantage, to surrender to the United States the exclusive monopoly 
in an immense carrying trade 1 and to be indebted to them (as 
we now are to Mehemet Ali) for the shortest, and ere long the 
only, passage to and from China, and our Indian and Australian 
possessions ? After expending incredible sums on two ship 



484 APPENDIX. 

canals to secure a river and lake navigation for nearly one-half 
of the distance, and, by a long course of liberal expenditure and 
honourable dealing, having secured the friendly alliance of the 
Indians throughout the west of America, will any British minister 
in his senses dare to sacrifice so much of the future interests of 
the British crown, and to cut off our great and rising colony of 
Canada from the only means of competing with her southern 
neighbour in manufactures and exports? Better assist the States 
in honourably acquiring California (a compromise they would wil- 
lingly accept), which by the natural laws of accretion they must 
ultimately possess, and which the imbecile Mexican is unable to 
improve, than relinquish the navigation, in perpetuity, of the 
Columbia, or a foot of territory north of it. This arrangement 
will secure to the United States two important outlets, besides 
their share of the Columbia (to which they have honestly no 
claim at all), and in the Bay of St. Francisco, the finest port 
and harbour, without dispute, in the world. It will do more — it 
will allay the national jealousies and mutual apprehensions rela- 
tive to the now unoccupied provinces of New Mexico, and recon- 
cile all American parties : thus guarding against the recurrence 
of any possible misunderstanding between the two countries. 
The speedy settlement of this question rests with Lord Aberdeen. 
A skilful agent at Mexico city, acquainted with the ground, could 
effect a treaty advantageous and satisfactory to each of the three 
parties concerned. I feel warranted also (from living near the 
seat of government, and frequent intercourse with official persons) 
in adding, that Mr. Pakenham, if invested with full powers and 
untrammelled in the exercise of them, could do the same. No 
one can now suppose that the United States has had, from the 
commencement of the Oregon dispute, any expectation of a war. 

In Russian America there are about a thousand members of 
the Russian Church among the whites, besides Indian converts. 
The Indians number 50,000. A bishop resides here, whose la- 
bours and zeal for the spiritual interests of his flock formed the 
subject of a high panegyric in a late number of a Philadelphia 
Church Journal, which I have mislaid. He is assisted by itine- 
rating priests and sub-officials. 

The Mexican Church, it is no information to the reader to men- 
tion, is still under the papal yoke. The following account of the 
consecration of its present primate, Senor Posada, Archbishop of 



APPENDIX. 485 

Mexico, from Madame de la Barca's interesting journal of a resi- 
dence in Mexico, may interest a portion of my readers. The 
detail of the preparations describes the old Bishop of Linares as 
presiding on the occasion, assisted by two younger brethren of 
the episcopal bench ; and General Bustamente, the then president 
of the republic, acting as " padrino," or god-father to the arch- 
bishop elect. The ceremony occupied three hours. The can- 
dlesticks and the basins for holy water were pure gold, and the 
vestments, &c. of "the most elaborate and costly description." 

" Magnificent chairs were prepared for the bishops near the 
altar, and the president, in uniform, took his seat among them. 
The presiding bishop took his place alone, with his back to the 
altar, and the Senor Posada was led in by the assisting bishops ; 
they with their mitres, he with his priest's cap, on. Arrived be- 
fore the presiding bishop, he uncovered his head and made a pro- 
found obeisance. These three then took their seats on chairs 
placed in front. After a short pause they arose, again uncovered 
their heads, and the bishop Moralez, turning to the presiding 
bishop, said, ' Most reverend father, the Holy Catholic Mother 
Church requests you to raise this presbyter to the charge of the 
archiepiscopate. 

" ' Have you an apostolical mandate ?' 

" ' We have.' 

" ' Read it.' 

" An assistant-priest then read the mandate in a loud voice ; 
upon which they all sat down, the consecrator saying, ' Thanks 
be to God.' Then Posada, kneeling before him, took an oath 
upon the Bible, which the bishop held, concluding with these 
words, 'So may God help me and these, his Holy Gospels.' 
Then, all sitting down, and resuming their mitres, the examina- 
tion of the future archbishop took place. It was very long, and 
at its conclusion Posada knelt before the presiding bishop and 
kissed his hand. To this succeeded the confession ; every one 
standing uncovered before the altar, which was then sprinkled 
with incense. Then followed the mass chaunted. 

" Led from the cathedral by the assistant-bishops, Posada was 
clothed with the episcopal robes, and read the service of the mass 
before the altar. Again brought before the consecrator, he salu- 
ted him with reverence, and sat whilst the presiding bishop de- 
clared to him the duties of the episcopal office. Again they all 



486 APPENDIX. 

rose, and the consecrator prayed for God's blessing on the newly- 
elected primate. Prostrate before the altar, they all listened to 
the singing of the Litanies. These ended, the presiding prelate, 
taking the crosier in his hand, prayed three times that grace 
might abound in the chosen one, each time signing him with the 
symbol of the cross. Posada alone now knelt, tiie rest sat on 
their episcopal chairs. 

" The Bible was then placed on his shoulders, while he re- 
mained prostrate ; the bishop, rising up, pronounced a solemn 
benediction on him, while the hymn of Venl Creator was sung in 
full choir. Then dipping his hand in the holy chrism, the bishop 
anointed the primate's head, making on it the sign of the cross, 
and saying, ' Let thy head be anointed and consecrated with the 
celestial benediction, according to the pontifical mandate.' The 
bishop then anointed his hands, making in the same manner the 
sign of the cross, and saying, ' May these hands be anointed with 
holy oil ; and as Samuel anointed David a king and a prophet, so 
be thou anointed and consecrated.' This was followed by a 
solemn prayer. Then the crosier was blessed, and presented to 
the elected archbishop, with these words, ' Receive the pastoral 
crosier, that thou mayest be humanely severe in correcting vices, 
exercising judgment without wrath.' The blessing of the ring 
followed, with solemn prayer, and, being sprinkled with holy 
water, it was placed on the third finger of the right hand, the 
bishop saying, ' Receive the ring, which is a sign of faith ; that, 
adorned with incorruptible faith, thou mayest guard inviolably 
the spouse of God, his holy Church.' 

" The volume of the Holy Scriptures, which during these last 
ceremonies had remained on the shoulders of the kneeling pre- 
late, was then removed and presented to him, with an injunction 
to receive and preach the Gospel. The kiss of peace was then 
bestowed, and Posada retired to his ablutions ; after these he re- 
turned, bearing two lighted tapers, which, with two small loaves 
and barrels of wine, he presented to the consecrator in a reve- 
rential attitude. The presiding prelate then washed his hands, 
mounted the altar-steps, and administered the sacrament to the 
primate elect. 

" The mitre was then blessed and placed upon his head, with 
a prayer from the bishop, that thus, with his head armed and with 
the staff of the Gospels, he might appear terrible to the adversa- 



APPENDIX. 487 

ries of the true faith. The gloves were next consecrated and 
drawn on his hands, the bishop praying ' that his hands might be 
surrounded by the purity of the new man ; and that as Jacob, 
when he covered his hands with goats' skins, offered agreeable 
meats to his father, and received his paternal benediction, so he, 
in offering the Holy Sacrament, might obtain the benediction of 
his Heavenly Father.' The archbishop was then seated by the 
consecrating prelate on his pontifical throne, and at the same time 
the hymn Te Deuni laudamus was chaunted. During the hymn, 
the bishops, with their jewelled mitres, rose, and, passing through 
the church, blessed the whole congregation, the new archbishop 
still remaining near the altar, and with his mitre. When he re- 
turned to his seat, the assistant-bishops, including the consecrator, 
remained standing till the hymn was concluded. The presiding 
bishop then, advancing with his mitre to the right hand of the 
archbishop, said, ' May thy hand be strengthened. May thy 
right hand be exalted. May justice and judgment be the prepa- 
ration of thy see !' Then the organ pealed forth, and they 
chaunted the hymn of Gloria Pairi. Long and solemn prayer 
followed, and then they all, uncovered, stood beside the Gospels, 
at the altar. The archbishop rose, and, with the mitre and cro- 
sier, pronounced a solemn blessing on all the people assembled. 
Then, while all knelt beside the altar, he said 'for many years.' 
This he repeated three several times ; the second time in the 
middle of the altar, the third time at the feet of the presiding 
bishop. 

" And then bestowing the kiss of peace on each of his episco- 
pal brethren, the new primate concluded the long and interesting 
ceremonies of the consecration."] 



No. IV. 

INSTITUTIONS CREATED BY THE GENERAL CONVENTION. 



THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK. 

Trustees. — All the bishops of the American Church, one trus- 
tee from each diocess, one additional for every eight clergymen, 



488 APPENDIX. 

one more additional for every two thousand dollars contributed, 
until the same amounts to ten thousand dollars, and one for every 
additional ten thousand contributed. 

Treasurer. — W. H. Harison, Esq., New York. 

Secretary. — The Rev. E. Y. Higbee, D.D., New York. 

Tlie Standing Committee. — All the bishops, the secretary ^nd 
the treasurer, together with an equal number of clergymen and 
laymen. 

Professorships. — Nature, Ministry, and Polity of the Church ; 
Biblical Learning and the Interpretation of Scripture ; Systematic 
Divinity ; Oriental and Greek Literature ; " St. Mark's Church 
in the Bowery," Professorship of Ecclesiastical History ; Pastoral 
Theology and Pulpit Eloquence. 

Students in 1844, about 70. Volumes in the library, 7500. 

The seminary opens on the first Monday in October, and closes 
on the Saturday next succeeding the fourth Tuesday in June. 



THE DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

The Board of Missions. — All the bishops of the American 
Church, thirty members elected by the General Convention, the 
elected members of the two committees below, and such persons 
as were patrons of the society in 1829. Secretary : The Rev. P. 
Van Pelt, Philadelphia. 

Domestic Committee of the Board. — All the bishops, with four 
clergymen and four laymen. A secretary and treasurer. The 
latter office is well filled by Thomas N. Standard, Esq., one of 
the worthiest men in the country. 

Foreign Committee of the Board. — All the bishops, with four 
clergymen and four laymen. 

In the Domestic Department ; two missionary bishops and 
ninety-four missionaries. Receipts, June 1843 to June 1844, 
28,266 dollars. Expenditures, 34,182 dollars. 

In the Foreign Department ; two bishops, twelve missionaries 
and twenty assistants. Receipts, June 1843 to June 1844, 31,032 
dollars. Expenditures, 29,045 dollars. 

Official Organ.—'' The Spirit of Missions," 20 John Street, 
New York. 

The stations and missionaries are as follows : — 



APPENDIX. 4S0 

Greece. — The station at Athens, under the Rev. John Hill : 
patronised and encouraged by the king, and the excellent Bres- 
thenes, Bishop of Sellucia and Metropolitan of the Greek Church. 
There are two other missionaries in holy orders, and four ladies ; 
at the head of the latter, Mrs. Hill is indefatigable in her efforts 
in the cause of female education. 

The African Mission. — At Liberia and Cape Palmas are 
two missionary priests, and four female teachers, with cate- 
chists, &c. 

Coma. — Bishop Boone, and five clergymen ; catechists, 

Turkey. — Bishop Southgate, and two missionaries. 



THE church SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. 

Board of Managers. — All the bishops, and sixty members, 
elected triennially by the society, together with a secretary and 
treasurer. 

Executive Committee. — All the bishops, with seven clergymen 
and five laymen ; a secretary, and editor of the " Children's 
Magazine ;" a "general editor and agent." 

The Church Sunday-School Union publishes books of instruc- 
tion and library books for Sunday-schools, the " Children's Maga- 
zine," and other periodicals. 



No. V. 

CANONS PASSED IN 1844. 



Of a Discretion to he allowed in the Calling, Trial, and Examina- 
tion of Deacons in certain cases. 

Section 1. It shall be lawful for any bishop, upon being re- 
quested so to do by a Resolution of the Convention of his diocess, 
to admit to the holy order of deacons persons not tried and exam- 
ined as prescribed in the canons "Of Candidates for Orders," 
" Of the Learning of those who are to be Ordained," and " Of 



490 APPENDIX. 

the Preparatory Exercises of a Candidate for Deacon's Orders," 
under the following limitations and restrictions, viz : — 

1. Every such person shall, have attained the full age of 
twenty-four years. 

2. He shall have presented to the bishop the certificate from 
the Standing Committee, required by Section 2 of the canon 
« Of Candidates for Orders." 

3. He shall have remained a Candidate for Orders at least one 
year from the date of such testimonials. 

4. He shall have presented to the bishop a testimonial from at 
least one rector of a parish, signifying a belief that the per- 
son so applying is well qualified to minister in the office 
of a deacon to the glory of God and the edification of His 
Church. 

5. He shall have been examined by the bishop and at least 
two presbyters, on his fitness for the ministrations declared 
in the Oi'dinal to appertain to the office of a deacon. 

Section 2. A deacon ordained under this canon shall not be 
allowed to take charge of a parish. 

Section 3. In every parish in which a deacon ordained under 
this canon shall officiate, he shall be subject to the direction of 
the rector of the parish, so long as therein resident, and officiating 
with the approbation of the bishop. 

Section 4. A deacon ordained under this canon shall not be 
transferable to another diocess without the request of the bishop 
to whom he is to be transferred, given in writing to the bishop to 
whose jurisdiction he belongs. 

Section 5. A deacon ordained under this canon shall not be 
entitled to a seat in any Convention, nor made the basis of any 
representation in the management of the concerns of the Church. 

Section 6. A deacon ordained under this canon shall not be 
ordained to the priesthood without first going through all the pre- 
paratory exercises of a candidate for deacon's orders, as required 
by the canon thereto relating, in addition to those required of a 
candidate for priest's orders, nor without presenting all the testi- 
monials required by the canon of testimonials to be produced on 
the part of those who are to be ordained. 

Section 7. In all respects not provided for by this canon, the 
deacons who shall be ordained under it shall be under the same 
direction and control as other deacons. 



APPENDIX. 491 

Of Foreign Missionary Bishops. 

Section 1. The House of Clerical and Lay Deputies may, 
from time to time, on nomination by the House of Bishops, elect 
a suitable person or persons to be a bishop or bishops of this 
Church, to exercise episcopal functions in any missionary station 
or stations of this Church out of the territory of the United States, 
which the House of Bishops, with the concurrence of the House 
of Clerical and Lay Deputies, may have designated. The evi- 
dence of such election shall be a certificate, to be subscribed by 
a constitutional majority of said House of Clerical and Lay Dep- 
uties, expressing their assent to the said nomination ; which cer- 
tificate shall be produced to the House of Bishops, and if the 
House of Bishops shall consent to the consecration, they may 
take order for that purpose. 

Section 2. Any bishop elected and consecrated under this 
canon to exercise episcopal functions, in any place or country 
which may have been thus designated, shall have no jurisdiction 
except in the place or country for which he has been elected and 
consecrated. He shall not be entitled to a seat in the House of 
Bishops, nor shall he be eligible to the office of diocesan bishop in 
any organised diocess within the United States. 

Section 3. Any bishop or bishops consecrated under this 
canon shall, on presentment by two-thirds of the missionaries 
under his charge for immorality or heresy, or for a violation 
of the constitution or canons of this Church, be tried, and, if 
found guilty, punished, in all particulars, as if he were a bishop 
of this Church resident within the limits of the United States. 

Section 4. Any bishop or bishops elected and consecrated un- 
der this canon may ordain as deacons or presbyters, to officiate 
within the limits of their respective missions, any persons of the 
age required by the canons of this Church, who shall exhibit to 
him or them the testimonials required by Section 2 of Canon IX, 
of 1841, signed by not less than two of the ordained missionaries 
of this Church who may be subject to his or their charge. 

Section 5. Any foreign missionary bishop, consecrated under 
this canon, may, by and with the advice of any three missionary 
presbyters under his charge, at his discretion, dispense with those 
studies required Irom a candidate for deacon's orders by the 
canons of this Church ; Provided no person shall be ordained by 
him who has not passed a satisfactory examination, in the pre- 



492 APPENDIX. 

sence of two presbyters, as to his theological learning and apti- 
tude to teach. And provided further, that no person shall be or- 
dained by him until he shall have been a candidate for at least 
three years. Nor shall any deacon so ordained be advanced to 
the order of presbyters, who has not been in deacon's orders for 
at least one year. Nor shall any deacon or priest, who shall 
have been ordained under this canon, be allowed to hold any cure, 
or officiate in the church in these United States, until he shall 
have complied with existing canons relating to the learning of 
persons to be ordained. 

Section 6. Any foreign missionary bishop or bishops elected 
and consecrated under this canon, shall have jurisdiction and 
government, according to the canons of this Church, over all mis- 
sionaries or clergymen of this Church resident in the district or 
country for which he or they may have been consecrated. 

Section 7. Every bishop elected and consecrated under this 
canon shall report to each General Convention his proceedings 
and acts, and the state of the mission under his supervision. He 
shall also make a similar report, at least once every year, to the 
Board of Missions of this Church. 



No. VI. 
"the holy church, throughout all the world." 

As the word Catholic is, through the modern perversion of it, 
an indefinite term to the apprehension of many readers, and is 
still applied by some English and American writers and public 
speakers (in the plenitude of their ignorance), exclusively to the 
members of one branch of the Church Universal, — notwithstand- 
ing that the different branches of the Church throughout the 
world have never abandoned the appellation, nor conceded it for a 
moment to the sole possession of the Italian branch and its de- 
pendencies : nevertheless, as this ignorance prevails amongst per- 
sons otherwise intelligent, and a Bishop of Norwich is found, in 
the nineteenth century, dishonest enough to authenticate the false- 
hood on the platform of Exeter Hall, and to unchurch his own 



APPENDIX. 



493 



communion, the following table from the United States "Church 
Almanac," published officially, is subjoined to these addenda, as 
showing to the reader, in black and white (by an authoritative 
document), what portions of the Christian communion throughout 
the world are recognised by that apostolical branch of the Cliurch 
in the United States as lawfully constituting the existing Catholic 
Church, which was planted by the Apostles in ." all the world." 
It will be found to embrace eleven-hvelfths of the nominally 
Christian community : all bound together by the tie of a com- 
mon uninterrupted apostolic descent, the same creed, the same 
episcopal government, and the same three orders of ministers. It 
will be observed that this table does not include Romanists, i. c. 
those adherents of the Roman see in Britain and her colonies, or 
the United States, Russia, Sweden, Asia, &c., who are — either 
by dissent and separation from the national Churches, or by natu- 
ralization, without conforming to them — in a state of recusancy, 
like other non-conforming dissenters. If these are included the 
proportion will be larger. 

The subjoined table (corrected, as far as I have the means, to 
this date) was put forth by the " Protestant Episcopal Tract So- 
ciety," in conformity, I presume, with a declaration of the House 
of Bishops in their Pastoral of 1838 (prepared by Bishop Gris- 
wold), in which the members of the American Church are re- 
minded by their spiritual fathers that, though small in number 
compared with the aggregate of the "denominations around them, 
it should not be forgotten that, in all the points which we deem 
essential to Christianity, we agree with what has been and still is 
held by far the greater part of Christians throughout the world." 
The necessity, as English and American Churchmen, of compre- 
hending the Churches under the papal yoke, where they legiti- 
mately exist — as in France, Spain, Portugal, &c. — in this Catho- 
lic family of the visible Church of Christ, is shown by Mr. 
Palmer in his "Treatise on the Church," dedicated, by permis- 
sion, to the primates of England and Ireland ; while the practice 
of the Church of England, in admitting clergymen of the Roman 
communion to our altars, witliout re-ordination, gives the lie to 
those " false prophets" who deny our younger sister's* claims. 

* The episcopal Catholic Church of England, as now governcil and constitu- 
ted, and in her faith and doctrine, is nine years older than the Church of 
Rome. — See Bishop Burgess, and the. honest " Rwvan Catholic'^ irrilcrs. 



494 APPENDIX. 

The unsound doctrines, arrogance, and uncatholic exclusiveness 
of that Church, lies at her own door, and dates from the Council 
of Trent. We, as a branch of the one Catholic Church, — re- 
cognised as such by a Bishop of Rome since our separation from 
that see — admitted to possess valid orders by the 7nost /earned 
writers of the Roman communion — we lose nothing by making 
such a charitable, such an historically correct admission on be- 
half of this continental communion. Of course, I do not include 
in the lawful Church of Rome the Romanist sect of this island, 
to which Mr. Newman has attached himself, the schismatical 
position of which is the more sinful as it is taken (on the part, at 
least, of the usurping priesthood) in the face of light and knoic- 
ledge ; on the part of the unhappy clerical apostates a sacrifice 
of duty and conviction to sentiment and feeling. It is due, how- 
ever, to these lapsing brethren to add, that a morbid sympathy for 
the unreformed branch of the Catholic Church under papal sway, 
is not confined to the clerical ranks in England. The readiness 
with which the recent fabrications of the pretended "Abbess Ma- 
krcna Mieczyslawska," the popish Maria Monk, and her " Basil- 
ian nuns" at Minsk, were adopted by the " liberal" part of the 
English community and press, and the commiseration expressed 
for the fabled " martyrs," whose supernatural sufferings and in- 
credible feats (better suited for the nursery books than a sober 
narrative) are still, in spite of their full refutation, professedly 
credited by those who are foremost in their opposition to the 
Church of England in her integrity as a Catholic communion, af- 
fords a mournful illustration — either of an increasing preference 
for the Romish Church, amongst the laity of this country, or of 
the equally dangerous inditferentism which pervades all ranks of 
politicians and nominal " protestants." 



APPENDIX. 



495 







Presby- 


— — — - — 1 


Churches. 


Bishops. 


ters and 
deacons. 


Laity. 


The Church of England 


2 archbps. 25 bishops 


14,600 


16,000,000 


Ireland 


2 archbps. 12 bishops 


1,964 


1,100,000 


British India 


3 bishops 


229 




Australia 


1 bishop 


54 




Van Dieman's Land 


1 bishop 


22 




New Zealand 


1 bishop 


18 




West Indies 


3 bishops 


185 




British North America 


5 bishops 


300 


301,000 


Other British dependencies 


1 bishop 


19 




The Church of Scotland 


1 primus, 5 bishops 


86 




The Church of Rome 








States of the Church 


1 pope, 67 bishops 




2,500,000 


Italy, Sicily, and Corsica 


39 archbps. 265 bishops 




19J500.000 


Spain 


8 archbps. 47 bishops 




13,500,000 


Portugal 


2 archbps. 13 bishops 




3,700,000 


Prance 


15 archbps. 65 bishops 


35,934 


30,000,000 


Austria beyond Italy 






22,000,000' 


Bavaria, Belgium, Cracow, 


^ 






Prussian Poland, with the 








European countries in 







12,000,000 


which the established re- 








ligion is sectarian 








South America 


4 archbps. 25 bishops 






Mexico 






11,000.000 


Cuba 






1,000,000 


Porto Rico 






195,000 


The Church of Sweden 


1 archbp. 11 bishops 


3,500 


3,000,000 


"Greek Church" or Church of 








Constantinople ^ 








Pontus 1 
Asia Minor [ 


1 patriarch, 116 bishops 






Thrace 








The Church of Russia 


4 metropolitan, 34 bishops 


190,000 


47,810,525 


Missionary Settlement 


1 bishop 






The Church of the Kingd. ] 
of Greece | 


10 archbps. 30 bishops 




1,250,000 


The Church of Georgia 








The Armenian Church 


42 archbps. 150 bishops 






The Chaldean Church 


1 patriarch, 6 bishops 






Mountain Chaldean 


1 patriarch, 1 nietr. 8 bps. 




100,000 


The Syrian Church (called ] 
Jacobite) ' 


1 patr. 21 metr. 65 bps. 






The Maronite Church 


1 patr. 5 metr. 13 bps. 




115,000 


The Coptic Church 


1 patriarch, 10 bishops 




50 000 


The Abyssinian Church 


1 patriarch 




1 



496 APPENDIX. 



No. VII. 

COLLEGES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES UNDER 
EXCLUSIVE CHURCH CONTROL. 

Washington College, Hartford, Connecticut. — Dr. Totten, 
President. Professorships : Ancient Languages ; Moral and In- 
tellectual Philosophy ; Chemistry ; Mathematics and Natural 
Philosophy ; Botany ; Law ; Lectureships in Anatomy and 
Physiology. 

Connecticut Episcopal Academy, Cheshire. — The Bishop, 
President ; the Rev. S. P. Paddock, Vice-president and Prin- 
cipal. 

Columbia College, New York. — Dr. Duer, President. Pro- 
fessorships : Moral, Intellectual, and Political Philosophy ; Greek 
and Latin Languages, Literature, and Antiquities ; Natural and 
Experimental Philosophy, and Chemistry ; Mathematics and 
Astronomy. The holders of these professorships form the Board 
of the College for the administration of its discipline. Besides 
them there is an "Adjunct Professor of the Greek and Latin 
Languages," who is Secretary to the Board. The Faculty also 
embraces a Professor of Law, Professor of Hebrew, Professor of 
the Spanish Language and Literature, Professor of the French 
Language and Literature ; Manipulator in Chemistry ; Instructor 
in Drawing and Perspective ; and Librarian. 

Trinity School, New York. — The Bishop, President ; the 
Rev. William Morris, Rector; and Assistants. 

St. Paul's College, Flushing, Long Island. — Dr. Muhlen- 
burg. Rector. Professorships : Evidences and Ethics of Chris- 
tianity ; Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Languages ; Mathematics 
and Natural Philosophy ; Chemistry and Mineralogy ; Assist- 
ants to the Latin and Greek Professor, and Mathematical Pro- 
fessor ; Teachers in the French, German, drawing, and music ; 
Chaplain, &c. 

St. Ann's, Female Institute, Long Island. — Dr. Schroeder, 
Rector. Assistants. An Institution of the highest class. 

Astoria Female Institute. — The Rev. John W. Brown, 
Rector. Female teachers in the various departments. 

Geneva College, Western New York. — Dr. Hale, President. 



APPENDIX. 497 

Professorships: "Startin professorship of Evidences of Christian- 
ity :" Mathematics and Natural Philosophy ; Statistics and Civil 
Engineering ; Latin and Greek Languages and Literature ; 
Chemistry ; History, Modern Languages, and Belles Lettres ; 
Latin and Greek Languages. 

HoBART Hall Institute, Oneida County. — The Rev. Marcus 
A. Perry, Principal. 

LocKPORT Seminary. — Rev. Ebenezer H. Cressy, Principal. 

De Lancey Institute. — A Principal and Assistants. 

St. Mary's Hall, Burlington. — A female institution of a high 
character. See pages 228 and 399. 

St. Mark's Hall, Orange, New Jersey. — The Rev. A. Ten 
Broek, Rector. The Bishop, Patron. 

St. Matthew's Hall, Port Golden, New Jersey. — The Rev. 
P. L. Jaques, Rector. The Bishop, Patron. 

Newark Female Seminary, Delaware. — The Bishop of Dela- 
ware, Patron ; the Rev. W. E. Franklin, Principal ; efficiently 
assisted. A favourite institution of female tuition. 

St. James's College, Hagerstown, Maryland. — The Rev. 
John B. Kerfoot, Rector and Chairman of the Faculty. Profes- 
sor of the Evidences and Ethics of Christianity, the Rev. Reuben 
Riley, Vicar- rector and Chaplain. Other professorships: Latin, 
Greek, and Hebrew Languages and History ; Rhetoric, Intellec- 
tual Philosophy, and Political Economy ; Mathematics, Natural 
Philosophy, and Chemistry. Five other tutors, a steward, and a 
curator. There is (as in several other colleges) a preparatory 
department, or grammar school. 

The following is the daily order observed in this college : — 

" The waking bell rings at six o'clock — in summer earlier — 
when the pupils rise, and in eight minutes appear at roll. Then 
they go to the washing-room, superintended by a prefect. 

" At twenty minutes before seven all the household are in 
chapel for the morning prayers, which on Wednesday and Fri- 
day, and on all the Holydays, are the regular morning services 
of the Church. Immediately after they proceed to breakfast in 
the refectory, where the students take their meals, always in 
company with all the members of the family. From breakfast 
until about eight they are at liberty in the open air, or, in bad 
weather, in the house. About eight the bell calls them to the 
study-hall, where half an hour is spent in exercises in English 

32 



498 



APPENDIX. 



grammar, orthography, and elocution, in which all the pupils 
unite. The succeeding four hours are spent in alternate study 
and recitation, with an interval of a few minutes between each 
for recreation. During study and recitation hours the strictest 
silence is enjoined, and no intercourse allowed among the boys, 

" At twelve the boys wash for dinner, and at ten minutes past 
twelve the chapel bell rings, to remind all of the duty of devotion 
at that hour. Some repair to the chapel, where a short service 
is performed ; attendance on which is wholly voluntary. 

"At twenty.five minutes past twelve, the dinner-bell calls 
them to the assembly- hall, when they go in order to the refec- 
tory. Immediately after dinner they assemble for a short time, 
when the reports by the professors, instructors, and prefects, of 
delinquencies in lessons or conduct, are examined into, and are 
followed with such discipline as the cases require. 

" From one to two, recreation. 

" From two to four, study and recitation. 

" From four to five, recreation. 

" From five to seven, study and recitation. 

" Tea at seven. 

" During the months of June and July, this arrangement is 
changed to suit the season. 

" After tea a short space of silence is set apart for reading the 
Holy Scriptures ; immediately after which are the evening family 
prayers in the chapel. The remainder of the evening is spent in 
reading, study, or quiet amusement, and by nine all are in the 
dormitories, where each sleeps in a separate bed." 

The religious education of the students is also strictly attended 
to in St. James' ; and " as the sons of churchmen," says the 
"Register," "the pupils are carefully taught the character and 
claims of their own communion, as a part of the One Catholic 
Church of Christ. All attend the morning prayer in the chapel 
before breakfast, on Sundays and week-days ; and on Sundays 
the Litany and Communion, and Evening Prayer, Every 
canonical day is rubrically observed. There are, as usual, four 
classes. The candidates for the Freshman class are examined in 
Sallust, Virgil, the grammar, &c. ; Xenophon's Anabasis, the 
Greek Testament ; Algebra (through simple equations), Geogra- 
phy, History, &c. The senior class read the most difficult books 
used in the English Universities, and review their previous stu- 



APPENDIX. 499 

dies ; besides attending lectures on Geology, Mineralogy, Con- 
stitutional Law, and the higher sciences. Terms, 225 dollars 
(j£45) per annum, payable half-yearly. The charges include 
everything but clothing, books, stationery, &c. 

Virginia Theological Seminary. — The Bishop, President; 
his Suffragan (Dr. Johns), Vice-president ; and three Professor- 
ships. See page 193. 

Fairfax Institute, Virginia. — The Rev. G. A. Smith, Prin- 
cipal. 

Georgia Episcopal Institute. — The Rev. Charles Fay, Prin- 
cipal. The Bishop of Georgia, Visitor. 

Theological Seminary, Gambier, Ohio. — The Bishop, Presi- 
dent, and Professor of Ecclesiastical Polity and Pastoral Divinity; 
three other professorships. 

Kenyon College, Gambier. — Four professors and two other 
tutors. To this college are attached a senior and a junior gram- 
mar school. 

Kentucky Theological Seminary, Lexington. — The Bishop, 
President ; three professorships. 

St. Mary's Seminary (Female), Indianapolis, Indiana. — The 
Rev. Samuel L. Johnson, Principal; Dr. Monro, President; 
three female teachers ; five trustees. 

Columbia Female Institute, Tennessee. — The Bishop of the 
diocess, President, and Lecturer on Moral Philosophy; the Rev. 
F. G. Smith, Rector, and Lecturer on the Physical Sciences, and 
Teacher of the Higher Mathematics ; the Rev. John W. Brown, 
Lecturer on English Literature ; with four other male, and ?iine- 
teen female teachers, a Librarian, Accountant, and Secretary, 
This institution is the largest of its kind in the country, estab- 
lished through the untiring exertions of Bishop Otey, its founder. 
The buildings are extensive and substantial, of the Gothic order. 
There are three departments of study, — a " Pestalozzian," "Ju- 
nior," and "Senior." The course of study embraces, besides 
French, Italian, and the classics (excepting Hebrew, &c.), Alge- 
bra, Theology, Ecclesiastical Polity, with the usual elegant ac- 
complishments ; and, unlike many " young ladies' schools" in 
the United States, the training in every branch is thorough. 
The Church in the West will find the benefit of such instruc- 
tion to her daughters another day ; to estimate it now is impos- 
sible. 



500 APPENDIX. 

Kemper College, St. Louis, Missouri. — The Rev. E. C. 
Hutchinson, President ; three professorships. 

Jubilee College, Peoria, Illinois. — The Bishop, President ; the 
Rev. Samuel Chase (the bishop's nephew) Principal ; two pro- 
fessorships only founded. If the magnificent design of the pre- 
siding bishop (now in its infancy) be completed, this will be one 
of the most important Church institutions in the country. His 
nephew reports that " The several departments are in operation. 
In the theological, two have pursued the prescribed course and 
been ordained, and are now actively engaged as missionaries; in 
the collegiate department the Freshman and Sophomore classes 
have been formed, the members of which were prepared here ; 
in the preparatory department others are in course of preparation 
for the next Freshman class." There is also a female depart- 
ment, one mile from the college, under the charge of the bishop's 
daughter, assisted by himself and Mrs. Chase. In western 
America, where the weeds of schism and atheism luxuriate, such 
an asylum for the education of the daughters of Illinois within 
the Church's own bosom, as "polished corners of her Temple," 
is a greater boon than the more favoured of their sex in Catholic 
England can easily estimate. 

course of study at jubilee. 

Preparatory Department. — Reading ; Spelling; Writing; Mod- 
ern Geography ; English Grammar ; Latin Lessons {Anthon's 
First and Second Parts) ; Csesar ; Cicero ; Virgil (Aiithon's) ; 
Greek Lessons (Anthon's First and Second Parts) ; Greek 
Reader (Anthon's) ; Arithmetic (Davies's) ; Algebra (through 
Equations of the first degree). 

Freshman Class. — Ancient Geography (Butler's) ; Greek and 
Roman Antiquities ; Sallust (Anthon's) ; Livy ; Horace (An- 
thon's Carmina and Epodes) ; Xenophon (Anabasis and Me?nora- 
bilia) ; Herodotus (begun) ; Algebra (Davies's Bourbon finished) ; 
Geometry, Plane, Solid, and Spherical (Davies's Legendre). 

Sophomore Class. — Outlines of Ancient History, Sacred and 
Profane, with Chronology ; Elements of Rhetoric and Oratory ; 
Horace (Anthon's Epistles and Satires) ; Tacitus ; Herodotus 
(finished) ; Homer ; Euripides ; Acts of the Apostles (in the 
original) ; Trigonometry, Plain and Spherical, and their applica- 



APPENDIX. 



501 



ons (Davies^s Legendrc) ; Nature and use of Logarithms ; 
lavigation and Surveying ; Analytic Geometry {Davies's com- 
lenced.) 

Junior Class. — Outlines of Modern History, Sacred and Pro- 
me, with Chronology; Evidences of Christianity [Paley's) ; 
iitellectual Philosophy ( Uphani's and Ahercromhie's) ; Cicero de 
)ratore and de Officiis ; Horace {Anthon's Episiola ad Pisoncs) ; 
)emosthenes ; ^Eschines (de Corona) ; iEschylus ; St. Paul's 
Epistle to the Romans (m the original) ; Analytic Geometry 
finished); Natural Philosophy; Mechanics; Hydrostatics; Pneu- 
latics ; Electricity ; Theory of Storms ; Magnetism ; Optics. 

Senior Class. — Elements of Criticism {Ka?nes''s) ; Butler's 
Lnalogy ; Ecclesiastical Polity ; Philosophical Works of Cicero; 
'lato {Crilo and Phcedo) ; Sopliocles {Qidijms Tyrannus) ; Chem- 
itry ; Astronomy {Cambridge) ; Examination of the Geography 
f the Heavens. 

Alabama Female Institute. — The Bishop, Visitor ; the Rev. 
L S. Smith, Rector; four Assistants. 



No. VIIl. 



COTEMPORARY PRESIDENTS AND PRESIDING BISHOPS. 



Presidents. 


Inaug. 


Presiding Bishops. 


.Sue. 


jteorge Washington 


1789 


Samuel Seabury 


1789 






Samuel Provoost 


1792 






William White 


1795 


ohn Aflams 


17)7 






Thomas Jcd'crson 


1801 






famps Madison 


1809 






amcs Monroe 


1817 






lohn Quincy Adam ; 


1825 






Vndrew Jackson 


1829 










Alexander V. Griswold 


!83t3 


Martin Van Buren 


1837 






VVilliam H. Harrison 


1811 






Fohn Tyler 


1841 










Philander Chase 


1843 


James K. Polk 


1845 







956 



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